“I’ve been cosplaying for twelve years. I cosplay a wide variety of things. I think my most popular ones would probably be She-Ra from the 2018 She-Ra and The Princesses of Power, Deku from My Hero, and Ladybug and Marinette from Miraculous Ladybug. I recently got into Genshin Impact, so I’m definitely thinking about doing either Yanfei or Yoimya. I also started streaming on Twitch in the past year. I’ve been making a little bit of income out of that. I’m actually having my subscribers choose my next cosplay. 

“I started when I was about ten years-old. I first saw it because I was on the internet and what not, and I was really into My Little Pony. I was a little bit over the age range, but you know those bronies and everything? That was a massive thing. There were a lot of people who did My Little Pony cosplay, so my first cosplay was Rainbow Dash. I also had a friend of mine who went to a convention in Victoria called Tsukino-Con. I heard that you could go there and do cosplay and stuff, so I went there the following year. I’ve been cosplaying every year since. 

“Once I was doing a photoshoot with some friends. It was before I moved to the mainland. My friend and I were doing Deku and Todoroki from My Hero. Some guy came up to us and said “Hey, my friend is a huge fan of My Hero. Can I get some photos?”. We were just kind of chilling on the grass when he came up to us, and then some of his other friends came over and we all got group shots. I had a similar experience at the night market before everything hit as well. We went to the night market after a convention a few summers ago in Vancouver, and I was still wearing my Deku cosplay -- again. We were taking photos, because the night market has all of the pretty lights and everything, and once again, a guy recognized me and asked for a photo, because he wanted to show some of his friends. A lot of the time when people come up to you in cosplay, it’s either because they recognize you, or they just want to know what you’re doing. They usually don’t mean any harm. I haven’t had any negative reactions so far.

“[Cosplaying] gives you a reason to stay childish. It always reminds me of the quote, “Growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional”. It just gives me a reason to stay as a kid -- playing dress up and what not with my friends.”