Cosplays, Cons & Controversies: A Deep Dive into the Cosplayer Experience

This isn’t my first time attempting this series. I set out to do this a few years ago with my “Meet a Cosplayer” series but ultimately came up short of my original goal. Originally, I was hoping to make it similar to my “Leaving Home” series, in which I sent questionnaires to be answered and then I would read them all and write one cohesive (chaptered) story.

This storied format came out of necessity; some family members did not write very long answers, so it would make for a short (and a bit boring) Q&A post. So, I set out to compare and contrast all of their stories to find their common themes, where they differed, and what made them special. I like to think it turned out pretty good! After the success of “Leaving Home,” I started “Meet a Cosplayer,” hoping for something similar. However, once I got the answers back, the format seemed to work better as a Q&A. So it would seem that whatever I originally intended to be the format inevitably changed based on the content.

All of that to say, I am trying again with “Cosplays, Cons & Controversies.” It’s been a few years and I’m in a much better place to do this. Not only have I been much more active in the cosplay community than when I did my first series, I’ve made much larger strides as a cosplayer. I feel like I have more knowledge and experience in this “field” to do a better job of writing this blog series. I know what questions to ask and how to ask them. I know where to go to find people who can participate and have a much wider audience through my different social media channels to do that.

What is my goal with this series? To learn and, in turn, teach. I want to hear as many cosplayers’ experiences as possible and find what brings us all together. I want to learn of their struggles and triumphs, what drives them and what keeps them coming back to this community. I want to read the rich and diverse stories of people I may never meet, so that I can learn something about my fellow cosplayers. I want to bring to light issues that plague this community so that we can start to work towards fixing them.

The saying goes, “Write what you know.” Well, I’ve heard something different: Austin Kleon says, “Write the book you want to read.”  Not only that, “draw the art you want to see, make the music you want to hear, write the books you want to read.”

So I’m doing just that.

If you are a cosplayer and are interested in participating in this series, please send me your email address below so I may send you the questionnaire!

The deadline for submitting the questionnaire answers is August 31, 2019.

Thank you and happy cosplaying!