Best things about cosplay!
Maybe you’ve read about cosplaying and how awful it is. About the drama, how expensive it is and how weird cosplayers are! Well, maybe it’s true. But there’s a reason why cosplay is such a mainstream hobby these days. While there can be a lot of negatives involving, the positives definitely make this hobby worthwhile.
What are the best things about cosplay?
Cosplaying is all about dressing up as your favorite characters, and that alone is very exciting. You get to learn a lot of valuable skills in the process. You don’t need to be artsy or creative to enjoy cosplaying. On top of that, cosplay is such a popular hobby that you’ll meet like-minded people who share the same passion.
In this post, I’ll give you the 10 best things about cosplay that’ll get you very excited about this hobby. There are a lot of great things to be had with cosplay.
Without further ado, let’s get started!
1. Learning experience
I’ve hosted many cosplay events and have met many cosplayers over the years. Because of that, I’ve also get to witness people change and grow into better people.
It’s no joke that taking part in cosplay can expose you to a lot of things that provide the learning experience! There are so many things you can learn from being a cosplayer, such as:
Sewing and crafting skills from making your costume
- Modeling and posing skills from cosplay photoshoots (more on that here)
- How to socialize with others. I’ve literally met beginner cosplayers who weren’t initially good at socializing, but later became very good as they met more people in the community.
- Budgeting skills. Cosplay can be ****ing expensive and you learn how to properly manage your money to keep cosplaying without going broke. (If you want to learn how to do this, click here)
- Makeup skills. Makeup is a huge part of the cosplay look, and you become really good at it when cosplaying at a higher level.
- Photography skills. Whether you’re the cosplay model or photographer, you’ll learn so much about photography when taking part in photoshoots.
- These are only some of the things you can learn as a cosplayer. I could go on, but there are lots of things you can learn along the way. It’s super awesome!
2. The Cosplay Community
Yes, the Cosplay Community can be one of the best things about this hobby! Although the community can get a bad reputation, I can tell you from my experience that there are also a ton of amazing people in it as well.
The Cosplay Community loves to talk about negative incidents. Which is fine because we all want to solve the issues going on in the community. But you wouldn’t believe how many random acts of kindness from cosplayers that I’ve witnessed and experienced.
Once I was at a comic convention and randomly chatted with these cosplayers. I was pretty hungry because I didn’t eat for the whole day. So as I was about to go buy overpriced food at the convention, when out of nowhere one of them said, “Hey would you like some of this poutine we bought? You can have it!” It was a nice gesture because I’m a sucker for poutine! But she also said, “That’s how we are. We cosplayers take care of each other.” And I totally agree with her.
The funniest story – I was about to do a Fire Emblem photoshoot at a small convention. Since I hadn’t worn my Marth costume in a long time, my wig was pretty off in terms of styling. But out of nowhere again, this random girl (at the time) came up to me and said, “Hey, I can help fix your wig and style it for you!” I gladly accepted. Needless to say, she did a fine job styling and cutting my wig for the shoot. The photos turned out great!
I’ve lost count how many times various cosplayers helped me out during a cosplay event. I don’t expect it, but I’m always thankful for what they do.
And I take care of the cosplayers in my community. Not trying to toot my own horn, but I’ve had a lot of people thank me for what I’ve done as a cosplay organizer. And a lot of people come to me for advice, and hopefully that helps them as well. As long as people treat me with respect, I do the same for them and they definitely appreciate it.
We’re called the Cosplay Community for a reason – we take care of each other!
If you want to learn more about the Cosplay Community, click here to read my article regarding the community in general.
3. Cosplay can be a confidence booster
While it’s true that seeing a bunch of beautiful and “perfect” cosplayers on social media can make you feel down on yourself, I know so so many cosplayers who have gotten more confident because of cosplay. The hobby can challenge you in many different ways. Whether it’s making a complicated cosplay that requires advanced techniques. Or even something as simple as wearing a more revealing cosplay. This hobby can make you feel great about yourself.
I remember my friend a few years ago saying that the Cosplay Community improved her self-esteem I asked her about her post a few weeks ago and here’s what she said:
“I did post that the Cosplay Community is a BIG CONFIDENCE booster for me, it still holds to this day.”
Another thing overlooked is that when you see all these great and beautiful cosplayers, it serves as motivation. Whether it’s for the attention, likes or recognition, I have seen so many cosplayers become motivated to become better and improve themselves:
- Hitting the gym to lose weight or gain muscle
- Improving their cosplay skills to make better-looking costumes
- Learning how to use makeup or wig styling to look pretty
- Even learning social etiquette to make more valuable friends in the community
All these things can definitely be confidence boosters!
4. Showing love for the character
We all have our reasons for cosplaying a certain character. It could be the flavor of the month in terms of popularity. But for the most part, we choose characters because we like them a lot. Cosplaying a certain character gives them the spotlight, because you are sharing their story to the world. And with cosplaying, you are showing that character in the best way possible.
So if you love a character, whether it’s from a video game, Anime, comic, etc. Cosplaying them is a great way to show how much you appreciate that character!
5. Form of emotional expression
In its most basic form, cosplay is a portmanteau of “costume” and “play.” So in a sense, you are always roleplaying while cosplaying!
While I think it’s out-dated to believe you need to actually roleplay with cosplaying, I also think most cosplayers do try to play the part of the character they’re dressing up as. After all, why dress up as a character you absolutely don’t like?
Anyways, one of the best things about cosplaying is you are giving yourself the opportunity to be someone else for one day! Whether it’s the true hero like Link from Zelda. Or a super villain like Azula from Avatar, you can be whoever you want to be in costume.
6. The challenge
Learning how to make your own costumes can be frustrating and at times difficult. But cosplay makes for a fun challenge. And it feels so rewarding when people appreciate your finished costume at a convention by asking for your photo!
Because no matter how you often you cosplay, you’ll likely learn something new each time you dress up.
I mention this a few times on this blog, but there’s a lot of nuance that goes into making a cosplay look really good. You could be wearing a simple cosplay like Lola Bunny, but there’s a lot of stuff you can do to make yourself look better: makeup, using the right poses, using high-quality material, shooting in the right setting, etc. If you’re the observant type like me, then you LOVE to notice these little things when you cosplay.
The last photoshoot I did, I was cosplaying Kaeya from Genshin Impact. One of the pieces of my costume kept falling off and someone told me I should carry bobby pins with me for situations like this. We called this Cosplay Malfunction. For me, trial and error is fun to learn and that’s what makes the cosplaying experience so enjoyable.
7. The conventions
I don’t know about you, but one reason why I loooove cosplaying is for the Anime/cosplay conventions! They are so addictively fun. You get to meet so many amazing people at conventions. Dressing up in cosplay during a convention is wonderful; you get to see people appreciate your costume and you can get your photos taken there as well.
You can always attend a convention without cosplaying. But even though it’s more work and definitely more stressful, nothing beats the experience of cosplaying at a convention! It’s the little things such as people stopping and asking for your cosplay photo, meeting other cosplayers from the same series and walking around in costume all-day long.
The joy of cosplaying at an Anime convention is something that’s hard to describe. But if you have, you’ll know that cosplaying at a con is one of the best things about cosplaying!
8. Social opportunities
I feel like this is a highly underrated aspect of cosplaying. Whether it’s dressing up at a convention or simply meeting up with friends for a private photoshoot, cosplaying always gives you an opportunity to socialize.
As I mention in this article, cosplaying is a great way to make new friends. You can be into the same fandom, or it’s a great excuse as an icebreaker to talk to someone new. For example, if you’re into Final Fantasy, it’s totally fun and awesome to meet someone who is also cosplaying from FF, because they’re into the same series.
Getting these opportunities to meet new people is important for cosplayers, and this is probably the biggest reason why we cosplay.
9. You can even make money!
Now to be fair, it’s not easy at all to be a full-time professional cosplayer, making money like Jessica Nigri or Yaya Han do. But you don’t have to be balling like that; earning some side income as a cosplayer is far easier and attainable. And who doesn’t love monetizing their hobbies? 🙂
As a cosplayer, there are a few ways you can earn some extra income:
- Commissions. Help someone make a cosplay or parts of their cosplay. They’ll put you for your services.
- Photoshoots. If you’re knowledgeable about photography, you can schedule photoshoots for cosplayers and charge to take photos. Click here to learn how much should you charge as a cosplay photographer.
- Sponsorships. If you have a large following on social media, you can use that leverage to help companies promote their products through sponsorships.
10. It’s fun!
Sure, it’s great that we get to learn a lot, meet new people and dress up in expensive costumes. But we wouldn’t do any of these things if it weren’t fun.
Not much to be said about this point. Cosplay is fun. 🙂
Summary
To summarize, here are the 10 best things about cosplay:
- Learning experience
- The Cosplay Community
- Cosplay can be a confidence booster
- Showing love for the character
- Form of emotional expression
- The challenge
- The conventions
- Social opportunities
- You can even make money!
- It’s fun!
And there you have it; the 10 best things about cosplay!
I hope this post gets you pumped and inspired to be part of this wonderful hobby.
If you have any questions or thoughts, leave them in the comments below!
My name is Roger Senpai. I’m a cosplayer that’s been in the community for well over a decade now. I’ve traveled all over the world to Anime and Comic conventions and hosted my own cosplay events. Now I’m writing articles for new and experienced cosplayers like you to help inspire, save you money and improve your cosplays!
