First name and last initial: Anna B.

Where are you from originally or reside currently? Originally from Brazil, living in NYC

How long you have been cosplaying? Started in 2009 & took a break until 2011 when I started again.

Other Characters cosplayed: Hatsune Miku (Vocaloid), Aqua (kingdom hearts), Saber (Fate), CC (code geas), Shiro (no game no life), Ciel (Black butler), SpiritMaster (Aion)

My first time seeing cosplay was through YouTube videos. I found Cosplay in America‘s videos and had my first glimpse into conventions and cosplayers in general. He interviewed a girl dressed as Hatsune Miku and asked her about how she created her costume, that was enough to make me more curious about this new fascinating world. After that I started thinking about creating my own Halloween costumes, which is what my first cosplay debuted as. After some time I started actually making costumes to attend events within my college’s club and from that it changed to attending conventions.

2. What do you do when you aren’t cosplaying (hobbies, community service, or work)?

I’m still in college, when I’m not in class or doing homework I usually like to play online games and video games, play with my cat, watch some series/anime online and ofcourse, work on my cosplay.

The biggest challenge was my blooming Sakura Miku. Since it was a variant of a fan-art I only had one reference image to work with. The amount of flowers I had to work on individually made this a very time consuming project. It was also complicated to move around once I was wearing it due to the weight and length of the tail of the skirt. I got stepped on multiple times but it was worth it.

Take your time and know your skill level. I still have trouble with many things, it’s important to know your skill level so you can better plan how long making something will realistically take. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try anything new, you should learn as you go along and become better with every step of the way.

I think people need to be less self centered, to stop trying to be better than others. We are all dedicated fans trying to show our fandom, we shouldn’t be fighting each-other for attention. We should help each-other improve and become better cosplayers as a group.