I haven’t updated in a while because it’s been convention madness, but Anime Detour is tomorrow and I’ll be there this weekend! I’ll be Mario on Friday, Wonder Woman on Saturday, and Sunday is up in the air. A few notes:
1. We’ll have a table in Artist Alley <3 We’ll have our books, pre-orders for the re-release of “Seeking the Storyteller” with pre-order bonuses, and plenty of fun, new crafts (table pic is from Kitsune Kon last weekend, but it shows some stuff we’ll have)
2. "Love Your Cosplay Body" will be Friday @ 5 pm in Plaza 2, which is my panel all about loving yourself and how it’s important to your cosplay.
3. "It Gets Better: Anime Detour" will be Saturday @ 1:30 pm in the Grand Ballroom, and I get to be on the panel with some amazing people :)
Hope to see you there!
Growing up, I was one of the weird kids. On top of loving video games, I loved anime, and back then that wasn’t “normal” for a black girl to be into. I was told that I wasn’t “a normal black girl,” to “stop acting white,” and was pretty much told that I wasn’t portraying my race accurately. I was also told that I “wasn’t a real girl” because I played video games. Add the fact that I was overweight and I was just this ball of oddness to people.
I did have friends, friends who I still love dearly today, but they weren’t into this whole anime/video game thing. Still, we were close like sisters, but I didn’t have too many people who could quote “Dragonball Z.” But at the age of 18, when I stepped into that convention hotel, I was suddenly surrounded by like minded people. It wasn’t just one or two people, but hundreds of them, and I suddenly didn’t feel like “the weird black girl.”
My interview with “Twin Cities Geek” celebrating #28DaysOfBlackCosplay.
Thanks so much to everyone who celebrated #28DaysOfBlackCosplay and thanks for letting me be a part of it. This movement has really shown that cosplay is something that all of us can take part in, and more importantly, it showed that there are many of us out there to support one another. To everyone who has ever been told that they’re “wrong” because of how they look or what they’re into, it’s o.k. to be different, and you’re not alone. The month may be ending, but the love and support is going to continue for the rest of the year and years to come.
Underneath the Wonder Woman dress is… another dress?! Tis true~
Filed under reasons why I love my wifey and her ingenious ideas <3
So I was listening to the Black Girl Nerds podcast last night, and they had PNW Fattitude as guests. The podcast was amazing to listen to as they covered plus sized cosplay and were all very encouraging. One thing that stuck out to me was the message of “making your cosplay your own.”
A lot of times, plus sized cosplayers think they can’t do certain characters because of their weight. I’m guilty of this. I’m guilty of having this voice in my head that tells me, “No, Bri, you can’t.” As confident as I am, I still have the voice of the fat, weird, black girl who was told that she was strange for being a geek. She’s still there, you know?
But the ladies on the podcast had this awesome message on how, essentially, you should cosplay how you want to cosplay, and do characters the way you want to do them.
Make the cosplay your own.
And it’s something that I tell myself when that voice pops up in my head. When I have that moment of insecurity, I quietly tell myself that it’ll be fine, that I’m having fun, that this is my take on a character and I’m going to rock it.
So here’s some examples of me doing just that :) I started to sketch designs for characters I wanted to do, and my wifey would bring them to life. This is in order of oldest (my Green Hill Zone dress) to newest (my Mario dress).
And remember, always remember, that to love your cosplay is to love yourself :)
A collection of me, my cosplay, my make up, clothes, just snippets of 2014.
This year has been quite the adventure. I traveled more than I ever have in my life. I met so many amazing people. I got my books and my crafts out there. I spoke up more than I ever have before about a variety of topics. It’s just been amazing.
To be honest, I never, ever expected to have fans, or be asked to be a guest anywhere, or anything like that. I never imagined having people who want to meet me, and who look up to me. All of you are so incredible, and are so important to me. Thank you all so much for supporting me and everything I do. I love you all <3
And, as always, if you take any cosplay message from me, it’s this: to love your cosplay is to love yourself. It’s so important to love yourself. There may be negative people out there, and what they say can, and does, hurt. But don’t let them stop you. Don’t let them keep you down. Don’t let them define who you are. YOU define who you are. You decide who you are. You hold your life in your hands and you have the power to make the very best out of it.
whenever i try to open this image google chrome just crashes, can someone just take a screenshot of the image
Which comic is this I want it yesterday.
Edit: Apparently it’s not real, but an edit someone did. Sad face :( But it’s still a brilliant edit and I’d love to see Wonder Woman like this.
I was tagged by Jezzabellgem Cosplay, Props & Costuming to name 4 of my favorite cosplays that I’ve done. I’m actually going to do 6! Special thanks to my wonderful wifey SnowCosplays for making all of these cosplays for me
1. Queen Minnie: This is the first ballgown cosplay I did. I really want to do it again some day. The wifey and I are kind of hoping that she gets a new outfit for Kingdom Hearts 3, otherwise, this dress is really adorable
2. Princess Peach: This one has special meaning to me, because it was the first time (to my knowledge) that I was bashed in cosplay, and I responded in such a public way by writing that article and frying that chicken. It really started me on this “cosplay is for everyone” path
3. Princess Tiana: I wanted to do her originally for completely biased “omg a black Disney princess” reasons, but after seeing the movie I really fell in love with her with her “work hard for your dreams” message. That and I always get such a great reaction to her, I really love seeing kids’ eyes light up when they see me.
4. Neo Queen Serenity: Sailor Moon is one of those series where my love gets renewed every time I see something from it. In this case, it was asieybarbie’s fanart. It was a really great moment putting this on, because Sailor Moon is one of her favorites, so seeing her face when she saw me in it was really great.
5. Wonder Woman: Who doesn’t love Wonder Woman? She’s such a great symbol of strength and empowerment. I feel so strong when I wear this cosplay, and I swear when I do get bashed while I’m wearing it, my brain is like, “Whatever I look fabulous.” I usually feel like that regardless, but something about Wonder Woman just makes me feel confident, no matter what.
6. Freddy Fazbear: I love this cosplay because it’s fun being scary. It’s so different from what I usually do. Also special shout out to Brad Duct-Tape Hale for being an amazing Freddy.
Make-up collection from Youmacon 2014 <3
Friday was Five Nights at Freddy’s.
Saturday was Princess Tiana.
Sunday was Wonder Woman.
My poor, poor make up remover pads on Friday, lol.
This is the story of a geeky anime/gaming gal by the name of Chibi. Please fasten your seat belts and prepare for... some sort of ride? Oh! I love to write, and I also love doing crafty things. I go to conventions with my partner and sell woodburned things, clocks, mirrors, and more! So expect to see those on here too :)
