Getting Ready for Anime Boston and Feeling Confident with Your Cosplay.
So it has finally come! This week is finally Anime Boston! I have never been so excited for a convention. There are so many glorious people I cannot wait to meet. People that I have become close to over the past 6 months and a few of my inspirations will also be there. I cannot even imagine how I am going to react when I meet all these wonderful people. I’ll probably just freeze in place and Joni.exe will stop working. Someone will have to pinch me because I’m going to think I’m in a dream.
Planning for Anime Boston has had ups and downs. Mostly ups! But a few downs! The major down was when Kate and I were trying to figure out our Liz and Patty cosplays. Every part of their cosplay was taken care of, except their hats and their confidence. The latter is more complicated so I’ll explain the hats first.
It turns out that it’s difficult to find Liz and Patty hats online! One of the best ways to retrieve them from the interweb is by buying their entire cosplay but Kate and I didn’t need that and it was ridiculous to pay $100 for just two hats and get rid of the rest of the cosplay. Therefore, we had to find a way to make them ourselves. I had the genius idea of buying cowboy hats and using colored felt to color them and stitch them up to look like Liz and Patty hats. The first trial I cut the rim of the cowboy hat off and I added the flaps of their hats with patterns I had made out of felt. Then I used the excess felt to place all the stitches on the hat. I thought it looked spectacular! I was so excited to finally put it on! I got up and stood in front of my mirror and placed the hat confidently on my head and I was immediately disappointed. Somehow instead of a Liz and Patty hat, I had created one of those hats that the British Royal Guards wear. It was not black and furry like theirs; however, it sat on my head exactly the same way and I just began to laugh at myself. I looked absolutely ridiculous!! So I decided to scrap it and try again at a later date and I gave the failed hat to my stuffed alpaca, Magnus, whom I adopted at Anime Matsuri 2015.
Last week I decided to try again! I had learned from my mistakes! The first mistake I mad was that I had cut the rim of the cowboy hats off. I needed to keep them on and use them as the rims of Liz and Patty’s hat. I thought to myself, “DUH JONI! YOU SHOULD’VE DONE THAT THE FIRST TIME!”. Also this time I used paint instead of felt. This tactic was also much simpler than cutting perfect circles out of felt and cutting them in half and cutting and cutting until they were the same size. The first tactic was like when you do your eyeliner and to make both sides of your eye even you keep adding on until both your eyes are like raccoon eyes. It took me 40 minutes to paint, this includes dry time, and it took about an hour to add all the stitches. It was turning out fabulous! Then I hot glue the rim of the cowboy hat so that it would match the rims of Liz and Patty’s hats. So now it was time for the moment of truth. I placed my Patty wig on and placed the hat atop my head. It looked horrid! This time it looked like a pirate hat! And, in addition to that, it kept sliding off my head because it didn't fit over my wig! It was an utter disaster! So I might have teared up a bit and I threw away the first horrid model of the hat and gave the new disaster hat 2.0 to who? You guessed it! Magnus! Somehow he was pulling off those hats and just completely slaying every alpaca’s existence. So at least the hats made him happy.
The disaster with the hats was really killing at my self-esteem and in addition to this disaster, I was also feeling insecure about being Patty. I’m not a huge fan of shorts and skirts! And it’s because your girl has thick thighs and I used to embrace them but lately, I have just been feeling really insecure about it. I didn’t want to cosplay Patty at Anime Boston and just feel self-conscious all day. The original plan was to cosplay Liz and Patty on Friday during the day and change into Deku and Uraraka at night. I knew that if I was in Patty I would just be thinking about changing into Deku all day and I don’t want to feel that way. I want to be able to wear Patty and be proud of Patty! Soul Eater is one my favorite animes and I want to be able to feel comfortable, free, and happy in a Soul Eater cosplay. Therefore, I messaged Kate and I said that I was worried that our cosplays wouldn’t be perfected in time for AB. I said to her:
And the conversation went on and on as we struggled to decide whether to keep Liz and Patty or save them for later and eventually we decided to hold them off for when we were confident with the cosplay we put together and confident enough with ourselves. And trust me y’all will see Liz and Patty and I’m proud to say that when you do they’ll be at their 200% best! Maybe we can even find a Kid to cosplay alongside us!!
We decided to replace Liz and Patty with Lance and Pidge and do some wholesome Plance on Saturday! Kate is in the midst of ordering her wig, should come in the mail on Wednesday, and we are trying to pull a Pidge outfit together for her as we cannot get or make a canon version of the cosplay in such short notice. So we are going to pull together a super cute casual Pidge cosplay and it’s going to be amazing! Kate is going to kill it as Pidge!! I even found the cutest Pidge glasses at the mall! I feel very happy with our change and it will also make the convention schedule much simpler. Instead of having to change from Liz and Patty to Deku and Uraraka on Friday and then me having to change from Lance to Deku to match Kate’s Uraraka on Saturday, we are just going to do BNHA all day Friday and Voltron all day Saturday!
It’s super important not to stress out about cosplay. Obviously, it is unavoidable because when you have a passion for it and for a character you want everything to be perfect. But it is also important to understand that what is most important is your happiness and comfort with a cosplay. Don’t think you have to force yourself to finish a cosplay for a con simply because you started it and don’t force yourself to cosplay a character you don’t feel comfortable with simply because it’s already in your plans. If you only had two cosplay plans planned for a con and then you decide to scrap one and just go as one character all weekend to a con THEN DO IT! Do what makes you feel best! If you think it’s going to take a bit more time for you to feel happy and secure in a cosplay then take all the time you need! But also remember that if you’re feeling insecure then your friends will be there for you to tell you “HEY YOU LOOK KICK ASS!!!”. Cons are about creating great memories and having fun and so cosplay the character that will make you feel happiest and that will allow you to get the greatest experience possible. Whether that be a super simple casual cosplay that allows you to run around and be free or a more complex cosplay that will induce “oohs” and “aahs” from people as they pass by. The possibilities to have a great time at cons and in cosplay are endless!
We made it through and now AB is this Thursday!!!! I am so so so excited and I hope to run into some of y’all there! Kate and I will be Deku and Uraraka on Friday, Pidge, and Lance on Saturday, and Easter Deku and Uraraka on Sunday!!!
I’M SO EXCITED!!! LET’S DO THIS!!!!!
