My name is Elliot M. I’m from Alexandria, VA and, believe it or not I’ve been cosplaying since I was about 4 or 5 years old. Long before I even knew what cosplay even WAS.

1. Who or what inspired you to cosplay

My first cosplay was when I used to go to preschool dressed as a locomotive engineer in my denim striped overalls and hat. It’s just always been one of my favorite imaginative outlets.  When I was about 15 or so in high school was when I found out there was a whole COMMUNITY of people like me, who loved to dress up and come up with stories and just have fun. Once I found out about that I ran with it.
In truth, pretty much anything can be cosplay material. I think what makes me….unique? Weird?….as a cosplayer is that I don’t really dress up as established characters much (Though I did make a Wildcat costume Wildcat, not Black Panther. Yes, I know he’s ancient). To me, cosplay is the incredible ability to bring yourself into what you love, forget the canon! But, because they’re from a different universe, I tend to give them names of their own.

2. What kinds of costumes do you like creating and what are your hobbies?

I started building my Mandalorian Armor (which has evolved along with me as I’ve evolved as a person (to the point where I need to make some bigger plates now). I named him Bruno (My great-grandfather’s given name) Bralor (Being my favorite Mandalorian Clan name).
But you can’t have a Mando and not a Jedi. As one of my friends in the Mandalorian Mercenaries Costume Club (of which I am not officially a part) once told me “you might stay for the Mandos, but everyone came to Star Wars for the Jedi.” But, like my Mando, I wanted to make my Jedi a reflection of me but in the Star Wars universe. So, I made the Kung-Fu Jedi (since I love kung-fu movies). I named him Ganner Iro-Gen. (There’s a Kung-fu reference there somewhere. Possibly to a certain tea-drinking former General, perhaps?)
But I also like doing some goofy costumes. When I’m not cosplaying, one of my longest running hobbies is playing the guitar (tied for favorite hobby with sailing and stage combat). So, since AC/DC is my favorite band, I dressed up as “Engus” (because Angus was taken) for Halloween once year. I ended up going to a bar and talking the DJ into letting me use his amp for a song. I played “Thunderstruck” and got the party hopping again. It was awesome.

3. What is one big piece of advice you would give to a new cosplayer?

I think the best piece of advice I would have for a someone who’s new to cosplay is: don’t care about what anyone else says (unless it’s a compliment). At the end of the day we’re all nerds/geeks in costumes being people me might not necessarily be. You do it for yourself, for the fun, for the fulfillment of those times when you meet someone and they say “WOW! That’s AWESOME!”. There is no room in cosplay, or in life,  for people who put you down when you put your best foot forward. Be who you want to be, and you’ll find that people will appreciate it.

4. What is one thing the cosplaying community can do better when it comes to dealing with each other?

To be brutally honest, I think the one thing that’s appalled me more than anything else about the cosplay community as a whole is how judgmental and exclusive some people (admittedly a very, VERY small percentage of cosplayers) try to make it. I can understand people wanting to have a good costume. I do, I know. But when you speak to someone else and try to enforce YOUR aesthetic or YOUR standards on someone who didn’t ask for your input, you’re being a jerk. We as cosplayers do this for the love of cosplay not fame, fortune, or benefit. And if you are overly critical of someone else’s costume, you run the risk of taking the fun out of it for them. We can’t have that, now can we?