You Don’t Need to be a Model #Cospositive 

In the world of cosplay, not everyone is equal. Let’s face it…some people are gifted with perfect teeth, perfect skin, huge racks, perfect figures and those are what you see when you do an Internet search on Cosplay. But not all cosplayers are perfect.

Every time you do a web search on Cosplay, you will get a bevy of women (and a few men) who look like models that just stepped out of a magazine. They have chiseled bodies, perfect hair, and flawless skin.

These people are visible in every aspect of life and these are the ones that generally get the attention. They get the cover stories and the photo shoots and are pushed forward as the face of cosplay.

Some of them are actual models hoping that cosplay will be their gateway into fame, and for some of those models the cosplay is meaningless, it’s just a means to an end. There are bevy of these type of girls on the Internet who only look for monetary value over the fan-fun that cosplay was meant to be. Other models got into cosplay and became addicted to it and for those individuals, the passion can be seen. For some of these models were already closet geeks and just found a way to combine a hobby with a potential career.

A lot of the other ‘perfect’ body cosplayers out there have worked extremely hard to achieve that level of body and notoriety. They work out, carefully choose what they eat, and generally take care of themselves. We give mad props to those cosplayers as well. Though there are some with the model quality body that do almost nothing, yet somehow manage to achieve the look. We can only wish to have their lucky genes.

The thing is, they are the minority. Most of us are not perfect. We are short and fat, tall and skinny, we have zits and bad hair. No one is ever truly 100% happy with themselves so we tend to look towards those we perceive as perfect and elevate them as better than ourselves in an effort to emulate them. It doesn’t mean they are perfect, in fact most of them have someone else they hold up as perfect because all they see is their own flaws.

You Don’t Need to be a Model

The point of cosplay is to have fun dressing as a character you like. For some, the fun is in the quest for the ideal parts and pieces, others have fun creating everything from scratch, and still others don’t care where the costume came from…they just love playing the character.

It’s not just the pretty cosplayers that get attention, there are plenty who get attention because of craftmanship and technique. They are noticed because of the creativity and work they put into their costume and craft.  Unfortunately, the ones with the skills just take a little longer to hit the limelight and then, you don’t see them, you see their costumes, because that is what they want you to see.

Do What You Enjoy

You don’t have to be perfectly pretty and you don’t have to be a perfect craftsman to enjoy your cosplay.  You just have to be you and pick a costume you like and a character you enjoy. The rest will follow.

Yes, you will have the naysayers. The ones that will say you are too fat/thin, tall/skinny or the wrong color or sex to play their favorite characters, but those are the people who probably wouldn’t be satisfied if the character stepped out of the page in front of them. These are also the same people who complain every time an artist changes something and deviates from what they see perceive as the character canon. The problem is that this is usually the louder and more obnoxious group.

The truth is your personal looks don’t even matter to a lot of the people you run into at a convention; they see the costume or character, not you. To some, simply the fact that you are dressed as their favorite character is more than enough. To others, the care you put into the costume itself is more important. These are the ones that admire your costume from afar, take stealth photos and may never let you know that they love what they see. Yes, there are always the more vocal ones that appreciate the cosplay, but for every one that openly acknowledges your cosplay – there are always at least one or two that merely lurk in the background and admire from afar. Always stay #COSPOSITIVE

Just remember that for every one loud, obnoxious negative comment, there are at least three quiet approvals out there, probably more.