Cosplay Confessions is a series we do to spotlight and get to understand the wonderful members of our cosplay community (and beyond!). This time we have the bad @$$ Alienpool!

How did you get into cosplay?

It’s funny, a friend invited me to a con and I said “no thanks, I like the stuff but I’m not THAT big of a nerd.” Well apparently our group of friends came back talking about how they had SO much fun. I felt like I missed out and said that I’ll have to do the next time. THEN she says “OH I’M GOING NEXT MONTH TO THIS ONE!”

I ended up going and I was afraid it was like a Halloween party and didn’t want to be the only one dressed up. But as her mom drove us up to the hotel. I saw the elaborate “.Hack” anime cosplays. I instantly loved it and was excited to dress up. I loved dressing up during Halloween so this wasn’t much different. Then while walking around as Inner Sakura from Naruto WITH NO WIG (I had blond hair) in a outfit my grandma and I made. An artist in the artist ally asked for a picture. I didn’t know that was a thing at cons. She was so nice. Then I had more people ask for pictures and were also complimenting me. It made me feel good like that they loved the hard work I put into the dress.

Why do you like cosplaying?

At first it was for just dressing up cause I’ve always loved dressing up and wearing different types of clothes.

But during cons it felt like Halloween. Then it was fun getting attention dressing up and getting pictures, it straight up made me feel famous. But then it evolved into art that I want to pursue as a job and make props and costumes. Which I have gotten jobs for now. It’s kind of a high for me when I get an outfit or prop finished and have it so close to the real thing in real life.

What have been your favorite character(s) to cosplay?

So far, Zarya from Overwatch has been my favorite. I think because it has been my biggest outfit I’ve done and the only one I’ve done LED lights in. Plus the most popular I’ve had. I’ve gotten so many people saying how I look like the real thing. The only drawback is, I’m bad at accents. So every time someone tries to do a saying with me I FELT LIKE I LET THEM DOWN!!!

How do you put together your costumes?

With a wing and a prayer/duck tape/hot glue/super glue. I am basically hoping it will work out most of the time. The Bob from Overwatch cosplay is the first time I bought a pattern off of Etsy to help make things easier for me. Only thing is getting the measurements right. Most of the time I do armor cosplay, so I use foam to shape it with a heat gun. Depending on the thickness of armor. I usually get the foam you use for treadmills they sell at Walmart o Home Depot. But now Joe Anne has Yaya Han fabric sells the good foam.

Was has been some of your favorite conventions/events to cosplay at?

The best conversation are the ones you spend with good people. I always try to share a room with good people to hang out with. I’ve been to Otakon and Katsucon the most. I’ve been to little cons here and there when I’m jonesing for some con fun. We have gone to some of the masquerade. The ones that do dancing is pretty cool. Katsucon is fun to see people try to ride the bull while drunk at one of the restaurants around the con. But the Artist ally is my favorite. I feel like you can buy most things online in the dealers room but I love artist. I spend most of my money in there.

What is one of your favorite cosplay stories?

I have a lot, both drama and funny. But I’ll tell the short one.

So in my group of friends that cosplay and live around me. Some of us are better at this than of that. So we help each-other our if we are struggling.

One year we all cosplaying as these characters with sharp teeth. Well, I didn’t want the kind you buy at the Halloween store where it’s all gums and supposed to be scary. I want how the characters has it sharp teeth if it was normal. I saw some stuff online about dental paste and fake nails. But those fell out easy if you aren’t careful. So, I messed with some things and I was able to make with moldable plastic you can boil and mold to your teeth so to put clip the fake nail on with non-toxic adhesive. So it looked great!! I was happy.

And my friends liked it too. So much so that one wanted me to help her make one for her. SO I DID. At like 12:30am we all still working on the cosplays cause the con was the next day/that day and I could just tell my parents were trying not to give us grief to tell us to go to bed! Cause we’re in the kitchen in the dark boiling plastic to put in her mouth! Well I tell her what to do. “ Put this warm plastic against your teeth ( so it can clip in and out) when it’s gets more solid.” She does. We wait till it cools off a bit. “ ok does it feel hard?” She’s like “yeah” I’m like “cool now take it out so we can cut the extra bits off.
Well she starts tugging at it and she says “it’s not coming out.”
“... Huh?”
“It’s not coming out. Did this happen to you?”
“..... yeah.. just get some hot is water and swish it around in your mouth till it loosen up. NOT TOO HOT but what your mouth can deal with. Gotta go upstairs brb ok?”
“OK”
I power walk up to my room. I AM SWEATING THIS DID NOT HAPPEN TO ME WITH MY TEETH!! It went smoothly for me. I’m in my room praying that we don’t go to the hospital and they take a weed wacker to her face as the doctors look at me saying “WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!!!”
I would just cry saying “I’M SORRY WE JUST WANTED TO BE HOMESTUCKS THIS YEAR!!”
As I was thinking how bad of a friend I am. Well then she come strolling up the steps.
“OK what next?”
I basically fall to the floor go in l go into fetal position and tell her what I mentally went through. She said that she thinks I’m more traumatized from this then she was. It worked so she didn’t think anything of this.

What are some of the challenges you've had to overcome being a cosplayer?

Time management, trying not to stress over a cosplay that supposed to be fun. Worrying about if I’m good enough to dress as this character or that. A lot of cosplay people worry about their body type. Cosplay is art and fun but work sometimes but at the end of the day with this con. We’re all dressing up as a cartoon characters, that is only supposed to mean fun and to be stupid. Don’t take life too seriously.

What advice would you give someone if they were interested in getting into cosplay?

They have outfits you can buy online!! I didn’t know that till late in the game. If you don’t know how to sew, THAT HELPS. Wigs, if it’s not a real person then don’t use your real hair. Wigs always looks better then MOST people’s real hair. If you’re going for wigs first time, I wouldn’t go for loooong hair wigs. That stuff knots up easy as you can blink. And always use deodorant and always clean your face AND MOISTURIZE your face. It photographs better in pictures.

What character would you LOVE to tackle someday?

Well I want to cosplay some old anime’s that I loved! when I was younger. I wanna do an Inuyasha character, someone from YuYu Hakusho. I’m back and forth thinking about doing a W.O.W cosplay. But I want to do something good to wear from that to go to Blizzard Con with. Also a Big Daddy Cosplay, definitely!

What has been your biggest cosplay achievement?

Making my Zarya gun. For a while I didn’t think I would be able to finish my Zarya cosplay. I been able to put lights in the gun. I wasn’t mentally able to figure out to make it in parts. So... I GOT THIS BIG GUN FOR THE CAR TRIP!

What are some of the benefits of cosplaying?

This is great to help learn and study sewing. If you don’t want to learn to sew and just dress up. That’s fine too. Some people think you NEED to make your outfit to be a “real cosplayer”. Cosplaying is having fun and being a nerd. Plus I didn’t want to learn to sew when I first started then I got more into it. Also if you cosplay and you aren’t the same skin color as the character it’s fine! Some people kinda go on about how “You can’t be Vegeta , Ms Marvel, or Sailor Moon cause you’re black or some other ethnicity so you’re not a good cosplay of the character.” That doesn’t matter. I’ve seen so many different people cosplay different characters. if your outfit rocking and you working it? You are stars across the boards! Pity the people that don’t recognize a fabulous cosplay.