Top 5 Curvy Cosplayers

While I want to support being healthy, I also support the concept of body positivity. I think that taking your health seriously is a personal journey and it's about learning how to embrace who you are at every step along the way, not just the finish line. I don't think being thin makes you who you are. I think taking action to improve your life will show you who you are and that sometimes that can result in becoming a more fit person. 

One of the things that helped me embrace myself and see myself for all the things I could potentially be (rather than all the things I'd never live up to) was cosplay. Becoming Appa made me believe I was confident enough to show off a costume I'd made without feeling like I wasn't able to embody the character. Training to become Rainbow Dash for PAX East taught me that I loved running. Creating my Dragon Age costume has been a celebration of getting my body to a place where I am believable as one of my favorite characters who I find incredibly empowering and badass. Each costume has helped me become more of who I am through taking on elements of other characters that I'm not sure I can live up to!

When I first started cosplaying, I was terrified because of the prevalence of this kind of behavior:

Alexandra Dal

This week, I saw an article about a girl who posted a picture of herself portraying Lara Croft from Tomb Raider on Halloween. It was a character she loved and she went out with her friends on Halloween and took pictures like we all do. She posted the picture to facebook and as the internet is known to do, it got hold of the photo and it went viral with the caption "Fridge Raider." On the surface, even she found it funny, but what the internet did to the image ultimately went from trolls having their fun to viscous bullying and body shaming. People wrote responses telling her to kill herself. They weren't just having a casual giggle. They tore her APART. 

It makes me want to cry because this girl is braver than I will EVER be. She was self assured and she wanted to be Lara Croft. She didn't care that she didn't have "the right" body type (something I still agonize about before each and every costume I make). She went out there and she enjoyed herself. Her reward? Ridicule from a pack of anonymous "dickwolves" who vilified her for having the audacity to go out with her friends and dress up for a night of fun on Halloween. 

Cosplay should be fun for everyone. It's about using your crafting hobbies to express how much you love something. It's not about how hot you are or how many interviews you get (though that stuff certainly has it's place in the "pro-cosplay" world). For most people, cosplay is about being a part of something and finding other people who love that same thing. 

That being said, that article made me want to point you guys in the direction of some ladies who are taking the world of cosplay by storm while rocking their curves and their craftsmanship. I want to celebrate them both for having the confidence I didn't have when I started this journey and for standing out from the crowd with their excellent designs and craft skills. Without further ado, here are my top 5 curvy cosplayers! Hopefully they will inspire you to get your feet wet no matter what size you are!

1. Darkspawnhorror 

She has a bunch of pictures on tumblr of her work, but I came across her "Marian Hawke" cosplay when I was looking for some empowering photos of Dragon Age cosplay to help me get inspired to work on Tallis. She looks like she's having a blast in every photo and what's more, you can see she has an eye for detail. Check out her guantlet and all the leatherwork. With an attitude like that, I just have to believe she must have chosen every snarky remark for her playthrough of DA II. 

2. Ivy Doomkitty

As an L.A. based cosplayer, Ivy rocks her curves in every costume from Star Trek to Elektra. I love her redesign of Dr. Doom. She's rocking the corset to create an amazing silhouette and it's a really creative repurposing of a male character for the female form. She rocks the sexy all the time and is probably more confident in her body than I will ever be! You can like her on Facebook to see more of her work. 

3. Lady Annika "Magneto" Cosplay

What I like about Lady Annika is that she's short and she doesn't necessarily have the hourglass form that some of these other ladies have. Yet, there's something amazing about the creative way she redesigns male costumes for her body. My favorites are her Nightwing and her very recent Walking Deadpool. She makes really awesome armor and the SFX make-up on her Deadpool is great. Go like her on Facebook to check out more of her work. 

4. Becky Young

Becky was on Heroes of Cosplay and while she's not as obviously curvy as some of the other ladies on this list, she admitted to struggling with her weight and being self conscious about looking good in her costumes while on the show. Watching her get cinched into her Merida costume and seeing her tough it out on the treadmill reminded me of all the other struggles that go on in the cosplay world OUTSIDE of simply making the costume. Her Pinkie Pie costume stood out to me long ago, even though I didn't know who she was at the time. She was just so bubbly and fun looking! If anypony is going to have a little meat on them, it would be the one who lives above the cake shop and loves to party! She embodied the character perfectly in every image I've seen. I also love that she is constantly working to improve her craftsmanship and I admire her the most out of all the ladies on that show. She was just the most "real" to me. I hope you'll check out her work on Facebook and give her some support, whether you were a fan of the show or not. 

5. Bellechere

The QUEEN of CURVES is Bellechere. My. God. If you are not following her work on Facebook, then you should be! I would venture to say she's probably the most successful curvaceous cosplayer out there. She is a confident sexy craftswoman who loves taking on superheroes. Her Captain Marvel is epic. Her Power Girl is epic. Everything is flawless and just because she's curvy doesn't mean she's afraid to show her fair share of skin. Check out her Goblin Queen costume if you're wondering what I'm talking about. I adore her. I'm always excited to see what she's going to do next. 

Those are my top five. There are probably more out there that I'm missing and I'd love to hear about them. If you know someone I missed, please feel free to add links to your favorites in the comments! 

10 Steps of Preparing Your Next Cosplay Project

With Syfy's new show Heroes of Cosplay on the horizon, I've been thinking a lot about my relationship with costuming and what I think goes into creating a successful project and an enjoyable experience for the creator. For some people (like the ones on this upcoming reality show), cosplay is more than a hobby. It's a way of life.

I'm not to that point quite yet, but I've put together 10 basic steps that I can apply to any costuming project in order to ensure it's as rewarding, challenging, and educational as possible. 

1. Love it. If you don't love your project, you are WASTING YOUR TIME. You will spend a lot of time and money working on it. You will make mistakes and problems will arise that you never expected. In order to push through it, you have to love the character and the process so much that it overshadows the more stressful aspects of the experience. 
2. Do a lot of photo research before you begin. Before you settle on a project, make sure you research the character from all angles and put together a bunch of pictures. Get close-ups of the material/armor details whenever possible. All of this will help you begin to put together how you'll have to construct the piece and you'll know pretty quickly whether you have the skills to pull it off. 
3. Draw up your design and think about every single element before you get started. After you spend time doing research, draw up your own design for each of the separate pieces that make up your costume and make a list of materials you'll need. You can also start putting together the steps it will take to construct the costume. Having this determined ahead of time can save you from a lot of headaches later on.
4. Make sure you have access to all of your materials before beginning. I don't like to start constructing the costume until I have ALL of the elements. It would stink to start and then realize halfway through that you still need worbla and have it out of stock or take too long to get to you to make it to the event. Organization is the key to success.
5. Leave enough time. Once you know when the event is, make sure you have enough time to pull off your costume. More than likely you have a job, or school, or some other aspect of life to plan around. You don't want to let your costuming overshadow your other commitments and you certainly don't want to have to rush the process. You're putting your time, energy, and money into this venture. Make sure you can make the most of it or it's not worth it.
6. Don't do "halfway cosplay." Maybe I sound stuck-up, but there's nothing sadder than seeing someone with badly constructed cardboard armor held together by duct tape. Obviously, you should do what makes you happy first and foremost, but I can't imagine that those people see themselves in pictures afterwards and think, "Nailed it." If you're going to do something, go all the way! If you can't afford to go all the way on a particular project, then I suggest scaling it back to something more manageable. Personally, I want to feel like I did the absolute best I could every time. The artistry of cosplay is in the execution, the polish, and the details. Anything less than that just seems like a waste to me. I don't mean that you have to do a full set of chain mail every time. I just mean that you should pick a costume that uses materials you can make look good. Again, I might be alone in that opinion so feel free to disagree in the comments. I just know how I feel about it!
7. Make sure it's something that will make you feel confident. If you are self conscious about showing your belly, don't wear a costume that forces you to do that. If your friends want to do a group costume project and you don't feel like you can pull it off and have a good time, chat with them about trying something else or get them to help you you brainstorm ideas to adjust the costume design without destroying the recognizable silhouette of the character. At the end of the day you want to be standing tall and proud (or short and proud in my case!). Personally, I try to pick something appropriate to my stature and body-type but it all comes down to your preference. You're putting a ton of time into this. Make sure it's something that's going to make you feel like a million bucks when you finally get to debut it.
8. Make sure you have the necessary skills to pull it off. If you don't know how to make armor, don't start out with an N7 suit from Mass Effect. If you don't know how to sew, don't start with a ball gown. My rule of thumb is that every costume has one element that I've never done before and the rest are skills I already have. That way I can minimize any mistakes in the execution and therefor I can avoid wasting time and money I don't have to lose. When you make a challenging, but attainable goal, you get to learn something and continue to grow as a cosplayer without setting your sites so high that you fall short and give up in frustration. 
9. Choose an appropriate venue for the costume. BronyCon is a kid friendly event. I definitely would not have gone with a super sexpot character design for that particular convention whereas donning a corset and thigh high boots for my Sindel costume for Halloween was totally fine with me. It all comes down to what you're comfortable with but it is something to think about. I also think you can make yourself stand out if you wear the right costume at the right venue. There weren't a lot of MLP cosplayers at PAX East, so my boyfriend and I really stood out from the pack there and got a lot of attention, whereas we were just more ponies at BronyCon. My Appa costume was hot on the heals of the release of the first season of The Legend of Korra so it was a big hit because the show was experiencing a renaissance in fandom at the time. These are all good things to keep in mind when it comes to making the most of your costume. 
10. Make a budget. This is so important. It's so easy to get into the middle of a project and find that you've spent hundreds of dollars. Be clear during the design process about how much money you have to allot to the project and figure out whether it's feasible to create your costume for that amount. For instance, I just looked at my bank account and even though I want to do a Xena costume really badly, I realized I couldn't possibly pull off paying for the armor materials or the leather/pleather and rivets it will take to make the dress. I will definitely be making that costume at some point in the future but when I sat down with my budget and my time line, I realized very quickly that it was a pipe dream at this particular point in time. Do not get yourself into a financial hole! Pick a costume that you can pull off for the right amount of money and you'll be much happier in the long run.