Cosplay vs. character photos because these are so fun to do and this is the only flex of 2020 I have 😂
Also I have a few notes about my journey as a cosplayer and my experience cosplaying from this show, as it was truly a game changer for me and did wonders for my confidence in cosplay!
I’m not one who is usually proud of my work or sure of myself in cosplay. My history in the cosplay world has not been great, as I cosplay characters that I really don’t look like at all. When I started out in cosplay I always got comments about my race and how I was a bad cosplayer because I did not look like the characters. I even ended up on a good vs. bad cosplay website (I was the bad cosplayer) because I didn’t look close enough to how the original actor looked. Because of this, I always second guessed myself and felt I had to work 10x harder in order to be seen as a legitimate cosplayer. I never felt that I really looked good as any characters I’ve cosplayed and I’ve always had a hard time finding characters that I felt I could pull off.
I always prepare myself for comments on my cosplays like “Hey, this character isn’t Chinese” or “Look it’s Asian (insert character here)”. Because I guess if you are not white or white passing, people always feel the need to point out your ethnicity when you are cosplaying. I even got called “Jackie Chan Sparrow” once by someone, which was wildly inappropriate. So I’m used to having to deal with these kinds of interactions when I’m in cosplay.
Discovering Hamilton was honestly the best thing I have ever done. Getting into cosplaying from the show has changed my cosplay experience for the better and has given me more confidence in my cosplay ability. Because there are so many different casts of the show and the show is so diversely cast, it was easy for me to see myself cosplaying as so many characters from the show. I don’t have to worry about looking like a particular actor in the show, as there are so many different actors who have played Hamilton, Burr, Eliza etc. I can’t even describe the amount of relief I feel not having to look like a specific actor and being able to kind of do my own look for these characters and still reasonably do a convincing cosplay from this show. It’s something I never thought I could experience honestly, and I’ve never had as much fun cosplaying from a specific series as I have with Hamilton. I think that is why I ended up making so many costumes from the show, because this is literally the only thing I’ve been able to cosplay from where my ethnicity isn’t the first thing people notice about my cosplay, and that is honestly such a relief to me. It’s nice to get a break from that and it’s nice to feel confident in the cosplays that I create.
Anyways, that’s a little bit of background of my cosplay experience. I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished this year as this is one of the only things I accomplished in 2020. There’s still a lot wrong with my current costumes, but given the resources and skill level I have (which honestly is very minimal), I’m very happy with the results.
Here’s to hoping 2021 will be better!
