Let’s talk about motives.
It’s that time of year where everyone apparently forgets how the cosplay world works. So please, allow me a very brief summary:
- If you are in this hobby because you want to be famous, please find the nearest exit and depart. This hobby is too expensive, too stressful, and too time consuming for it to be a popularity contest.
- If you are already famous and want to cosplay, power to you. Bring us to the mainstream. It makes buying things that much easier for me.
Now, being a worldly lass, I know that the above is not a popular opinion in our lovely cosfamily. I have never been one to play the fame game—that is not my MO in any aspect of my life. I’m in this because I like the craft. I would so much rather have a few people appreciate my skill than thousands of people ooh and ah at my pretty face. I have a very hard time understanding the craving for the limelight.
There are people who for whatever reason—be it skill or charisma or just a pretty face—will become Internet Famous™ without trying. There are people who will be in this hobby for decades and only draw a small following. That isn’t what it should be about.
It does not matter if you make your cosplays or buy every single one of them, have boatloads of cash to pay top notch photogs and go to all the conventions or only make it to 5 a year, or have 100K followers or 100. As long as you are having fun, it should not matter what the internet thinks of you.
I’ve been seeing a lot of posts lately that are either:
A: Criticizing popular cosplayers for not making their own cosplays.
B: Bemoaning the fact that they’re talented but get no attention.
The internet is a very fickle place, and relying on IP addresses and Facebook likes to validate your experience is a poisonous attitude. If this dichotomy is causing an undue amount of stress to your life as a cosplayer, perhaps it’s time to step back from the hobby and reexamine why you are here.
Sure, there are people in the community whose fame I don’t quite understand—so I ignore them. Why would I spend my time worrying about how famous someone else is when I could be scrolling through someone else’s YouTube channel to learn a new skill?
Rather than getting offended that “Person A gets sponsorships for circle lenses why don’t I!”, I focus on my own work and my friends and the people whose work or faces I enjoy seeing.
When it comes down to it, we are all nerds in costumes. Whether you’re a crafty nerd who wants to make everything and compete for awards, or a model nerd who enjoys wearing the outfits and getting pictures taken, or just someone who likes to dress up with their friends at cons, it is all 1000% okay.
Cosplay for yourself and no one else.
Unless your friends want you in a group with them.
Then also cosplay for your friends.
