Awesome-con: First impressions, convention experience, and all that Jazz

Awesome-con is a convention that's held in the Washington Convention Center which is steadily growing in size. Apparently last year it was about the size of a high school gym, and this year i would say it easily rivaled a professional football field. Keep in mind, this convention is about 30 m away from my house, and pretty easily accessible by metro-- so why wouldn't I go?

A lot of people have complained about lines. I mean there were lines, but if you've been to Otakon, these lines looked like child's play. There was a lack of organization to the staff which is pretty understandable for any new con, and i think they just weren't prepared for the turnout that ended up happening. So those are the bad things about it, plus it all being crammed into one room, which again i think will change as the con evolves and the con changes but all in all I liked it.

I've never been to a comic book convention. I've always fully exploited the manga/anime convention scene and I got to tell you, it's a lot of the same thing. It's amazing how much our conventions overlap and i think i'm going to be going to a lot more comic book conventions. In fact, I've added a couple more comic book characters to my must cosplay list so keep an eye on that.

I wish that there was more to do. I felt like the panels-- if they weren't Q and A, or they weren't cosplay speed dating, they were just boring. There was like nothing that was not boring. I think that convention planners should really encourage average janes to have panels because sometimes those are the funnest. You don't know what people have to offer until they've tried it, and there's a lot of people that live around here that have done some epic panels.

I really enjoyed meeting people from this area. Sometimes at larger conventions, you don't get to go up to Ani-mia or Soni Aralynn but here we were on a first name basis [okay not really but you get the gist]. I got to meet people that I never imagined i could meet that weren't even on the guest list. It also brought a lot of photographers from the area which I also didn't know existed and the only thing I wish for is a secretary to organize my business cards and make sure that I keep up with and message every single one of you individually.

In fact, if you're a photographer in this area and you don't get a message from me, assume something's wrong and send one to me.

I think that if you're within like a two hour radius of this con, you should give it a shot. If you're not part of the DMV, find your respected comic-con and go there, because ya'll comic con attendees have proved one thing to me and that's your heart <3 br="">
Happy Cosplay
Sugar Blossom Cosplay

Conformity and Cosplay

Conformity and Adolescent Females

            Cosplay by definition is a play on words between costume and play. 

It involves dressing up like a cartoon or anime character, and then parading it 

around either at a convention or another social gathering (Cosplay). 

Conformity has made its way into the Cosplay world—my world. 

It happens to involve the two groups involved, adolescents and females

 of whom are bound to conform due to scrutiny for the costume choices and

 negative sexual attention.

            Conformity is described by Psychology today as “Conformity is

 the tendency to align your attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors with those

 around you” (The Pull of Conformity , n.d.). Solomon E. Asch studied it 

with his line experiment, in which students were shown a series of lines 

and then asked to tell which line was the same as those in the other group. 

Confederates were told to give the wrong answer, and this led participants

 to feel pressured to also give in to the wrong answer. When giving the 

wrong answer, they seemed incredibly uncomfortable, and even looked

 like they were in physical pain in some scenarios (Asch, 1956).

            In more recent cases, conformity has been applied to the 

sexualization of adolescent girls, and how they feel pressured to give

 into society. Some adolescent girls feel the pressure to cover up, while

 other girls feel the need to show more. Girls of whom were studied in

 a five year longitudinal study about conformity and this period of time

 as being a “heightened psychological risk for girls.” The researcher 

joined in at the “struggle and resistance at this developmental juncture” 

due to the pressure of conformity on these girls (Brown & Gilligan). 

In another study, girls were scrutinized during their “coming of age” 

moment and this impacted them psychologically for years to come 

(Lesko, 1996). The pressure that young girls feel does have 

negative consequences on their psyche.

            In Cosplay, sometimes writers or artists don’t draw women

 as proportionate and modest as they should. Sometimes in comics, 

women are portrayed as large breasted with tiny waists and dressed 

less than modest. Independent of this assignment, I began making a 

costume that could be considered less than modest. Black cat is a 

character from marvel whose breasts take the forefront of her skin 

tight leather suit. Immediately, from cosplayers, photographers,

 and just fans, I began feeling the pressure.  My breasts became

 my identity and I gave way to conformity.

            The pull as to whether to cover them up, or boast them out

 became almost unbearable. I chose the latter and I got a lot of 

scrutiny for it. I am part of the group affected, the young, adolescent

 girl who was looking for her identity. I aligned my feelings and actions

 with those around me by giving way to boasting my breasts all over 

the internet, and the streets of D.C. this weekend. Like Solomon

 Asch’s participants, I picked a line.

            I am not the only girl in the Cosplay community to feel

 this pressure. Most comic book or anime characters are done

 disproportionately and over sexualized. This is the way that most

 of the girls are in the media. The Cosplay community is made up 

of people mostly my age, they’re probably between the ages 

of 14 and 25, and they’re making and modeling these less than

 modest costumes (Cosplayer, 2014). One girl who’s under the age

 of 18 said that she’s had “complete strangers walk up and put

 their hands on my chest…, send me sexual messages online,

 touch my butt when taking pictures with me, try for the whole 

'upskirt' thing while I’m walking up stairs…” These guys see

 these characters which are literally their greatest fantasies

 and they feel the need to touch us and say inappropriate things to us.

            Conventions should have policies put into place to protect

 cosplayers. They have Disruptive behavior policies, line etiquette

 policies, 18+ policies, and many more (Otakorp, 2014). Possibly

 conventions should use the positive sides of conformity, and make it

 “not cool” to touch and even make it a positive thing for cosplayers

 to stand up for one another. Anime and comic book conventions 

could use their pull in the community to cause people to align aside

 of them and stand up for those who are too afraid to stand up for

 themselves. Either option should be okay, whether it be modifying

 a costume so that it is as modest as the cosplayer feels, or even

 flaunting their breasts at a convention. They could use the positive

 effects of conformity to enforce this, and eventually everyone will

 align with the “attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors” of the community.

Works Cited

Cosplayer Nation Documentary [Motion Picture].

Asch, S. E. (1956). Studies of independence and conformity: I. A minority of one against a unanimous majority. Retrieved from PsychNET: http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/mon/70/9/1/

Brown, L. M., & Gilligan, C. (n.d.). Meeting at the Crossroads: Women's Psychology and Girls' Development. Retrieved from Feminism & Psychology: http://fap.sagepub.com/content/3/1/11.short

Lesko, N. (1996, December). Denaturalizing Adolescence. Retrieved from Youth & Society: http://yas.sagepub.com/content/28/2/139.short

Otakorp. (2014). Vitals: Policies. Retrieved from Otakon.com.

Cosplayer. (2014, April 7). Cosplayer Interview. (Cosplayer, Interviewer)

The Pull of Conformity . (n.d.). Retrieved from Psychology Today: http://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/conformity

Why I cosplay

Photographer: Rene Hwang Photography

This time last year, I felt alone. Don't get me wrong. In real life, I have some of the best friends that I wish I could describe with sentences but truth is I just don't have enough space. My family has always been so supportive of my hobbies, even when they're stretched their emotional limits for me. And Myself-- i've always had this drive that I could never describe to anyone, but when I wanted something-- I just reached up and took it and didn't take no for an answer.

But the question-- always came up-- why do you cosplay? It's hard to explain why I cosplay. Usually with a costume there are multiple moments when I'm in tears because something isn't going my way, or a pleat isn't holding. You would think that it'd be easier to just live a normal life, and be a student, and work retail, and be amazing at it. The truth is-- it would be-- but I think it would kill me.

Photographer: N3 Photography

Cosplay to me-- is like breathing. It's something that since I began wearing and making costumes-- I couldn't stop doing it. You remember that drive that I mentioned before that was inside me? It pushed me forward. I was hungry to learn more, I am still hungry to learn more. I may not pick characters I love (I do quite a lot of that too though)-- but I pick characters that challenge me as a cosplayer-- that cause me to reach further than I ever thought I could reach before.

It's hard to explain to a person that doesn't cosplay, why I cosplay, and simply put that's why I felt so alone. I had all these people asking me why I did it, but not one person understood my passion for it. Through conventions, and through cosplaying, I found more people like me-- Yuuzuki, Tommyish, Calypso, Twittles, and there are so many more. I don't have to explain to them why I do it, or why I cry over it because they do too, and we all do it together.

And we have whole skype conversations talking about the right kind of glue and nobody asks why we're doing it.

Photographer: Rene Hwang Photography

But I think it's worth while to explain, maybe if  not to you-- the reader-- but to a cosplayer that has that passion and doesn't know how to reach for it. The truth is-- you're not alone. We are a community, and we always will be. And even though we have our ups and downs like any community does, we will shelter you and we will love you and we will continue to feed your passion for as long as you'll let it burn.

Don't be discouraged, and don't be afraid if you don't know which stitch to use on a stretch fabric because there's always someone you can ask-- and none of us will ask you why you cosplay-- because we already know-- and it's not words that can describe it-- but a feeling-- deep down that when you're in costume you're empowered and you can truly be whoever you want to be.

I don't know you. And truth be told, I may never meet you. But I'm here for you, and I bring with me whatever cosplayers decide to follow. And I'll cry for you, and i'll give you invisa-cyber-hugs, and invisa-cyber-kisses. Because I get it.

Photographer: Morning Addict Photography

Advice to New Cosplayers~

My name is Sugar Blossom Cosplay-- and my real name is Micah. I've been cosplaying since about 07 on and off and i get the same question-- over and over-- what advice would you give someone that wanted to start cosplaying. This isn't a how to sew guide, or a how to get "famous" fast guide, so if that's what you're looking for then turn away. Cosplaying isn't about all those things (okay though it does require sewing sometimes). So here's my advice for a cosplayer starting out, with some of my own life experiences.

Photographer: Rene Hwang Photography

1.) Don't worry about what people say about you.

They're going to say that you're too fat, ugly, skinny, pretty, black, white, orange, purple and everything they can say to convince you not to do a character. Just don't listen to it. You do which character you want to do. This can be based on the character's design or their attitude-- whatever the hell reason you want to cosplay the character is good enough for you.

Example:
This is me as Yuna from X-2. I was a size 0. I got so many comments from my friends about how I shouldn't wear such a sexy costume because I was too chunky, and I just didn't have the body type needed to pull the costume off. When I got to the convention-- however-- in short shorts and my stomach exposed and the middle part of my shirt cut out-- i got so many complements. Even one of the guys that gave me hell for doing such the costume, told me I looked hot after the photos came out.



Photographer: SBC



2) Don't worry about what cosplayers say about you.
Cosplayers like to talk. They're going to say that you shouldn't have done that this way, that your wigs the wrong color and your boots don't look alike enough to the character. They're going to say your shirt should be longer, your skirt should be shorter and your boobs should appear bigger. If you-- the cosplayer-- like what you're wearing-- once again tell them all to go screw themselves.

Example:
This is my Gwendolyn costume from the game Odin sphere. While making the wings I had one girl tell me that I should've made them out of real feathers, and then used fabric paint to paint the gradient like I wanted. I had another girl criticize me about my usage of paper mache underneath the feathers to give it the structure it needed. People say so many things, but they're not there. One photographer took pictures of specifically my wings because the detail work that we were able to get using the air brush on the wings, was un-comparable.



Photographer: Cozpho Photography



One thing I say about cosplaying is I learn by messing up. I learn by seem ripping with tears in my eyes three yards of fabric, and I would imagine other people learn that way too. If you've failed at making them a few times, then you soon become the expert in the field, and however you manage to do whatever magic you do is something that they can't replicate without the same process.

3) Don't use cheap materials.
Costume satin, looks like costume satin. Wigs-- look like cheap wigs. This shows up in photography, this shows up when you are walking around the convention. Jo-annes always has coupons out and you can always find them on a smart phone or an app. For wigs-- always try to get ones from Arda, amphigory or epic cosplay. If you buy a cheap ebay wig, you risk the chance of it not fitting, or tangling incredibly easy.

I'm not going to sit here and say that I've never ordered an ebay wig, and it's never worked out, because it has. But you usually can't plan on using the wig afterwards, and it's a one time do or die thing. I personally have a little bit of above average head. my head is 22.25 inches and the standard is like 22. Pre-made over styled wigs will not fit me unless they have been made around the size of my head.

Example:

                                                                                                         v Rene Hwang Photography v

These costumes are actually identical, take out the bad photography on the one on the right and the shoes. The main difference is actually the wig and as you can see, it makes a large difference. I'm not a wig maker, and the one on the right was actually commissioned. The one on the left I was trying to save money on, and because it ended up getting so tangled, we had to wrap chord around it to keep it together.

4) Don't be afraid to buy your costume.
I don't know about you guys-- but real life sometimes catches up to me. I either have something heart breaking happen in my life like a death, or I have to work like 60 hours the week before a convention. Buying things is not a bad thing and do not let other cosplayers tell you differently.


                                                               Photographer: Rene Hwang Photography (on the right)

I told you before that I'm no wig maker. I would rather commission it every time. I also don't resin cast, do fake armor, plastic work, sanding, etc. There are a couple things that I have bought and I've been really happy with. My sailor moon brooches are one of those things. I love them, but people may give me grief about having them commissioned because I didn't do it by hand. My thoughts are, if someone already has the mold made and can make it for you for cheaper and less effort then you have to put forth, then why wouldn't you just go ahead and let them do it?

My rogue jacket, I actually bought off ebay and then i altered it, and stuck the patches on it. Valkyrie cosplay actually made the belt accessories and you know what? I bought the spandex suit. I'm not ashamed. Do you see how I look up there? Judge me-- I don't care-- and that's what you really need to learn how to do.

Photographer: Hector Prieto

5) Don't forget to have fun.
Even though cosplaying is becoming more and more like a business, don't be afraid to do a couple funny pictures every once and a while. Be happy. Wear what makes you happy. It really doesn't matter if your wig is a shade off, or your boots rip halfway through the convention, or your boyfriend has to carry around duct tape to duct tape your wings to you. As long as you have fun! Don't forget to have a couple drinks, sit down every once and a while, do a couple fun costumes, and make a couple silly faces.





Photographer: Rene Hwang Photography
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Photographer: Billy Tran
v Underneath v







I may add more to these someday-- or just make a part two-- so keep your eye out for it-- and until then...

Happy Cosplaying :D

Sailor Moon

Sooo. I'm a huge Sailor Moon freak. :)

I'm thinking to do one Sailor Moon Cosplay for every con-- between now and forever. I'm looking for a group of 5 Fiiiivvve girls. Moon (myself) then I need a Mercury,&nbsp; Mars, Jupiter and Venus.

Mercury doesn't have to be the same mercury from con to con and mars doesn't have to be the same mars. I always want to be Sailor Moon though. Because I love her.
I have a couple prerequisites though.
A) The person has to be able to sew
--or at least try to learn how to. I learned everything I know sewing wise from cosplay. You can too. No buying costumes (parts are ok obviously but if we are going to be a cohesive group-- you have to contribute as a cohesive group member) if a group member wants to switch props for fabric or something,  I see no problems with that.

B) The person has to be able to listen.
-- I'm a control freak. Everyone has to have the same make up and the same type of fabric and etc. I'm not going to tell you to do something that looks bad. That's just the truth. I'm open to suggestions but i don't want to fight.

C) The person has to be able to commit
-- commitment is a big thing. If you tell me you're going to commit, I expect you to commit. If you don't, you harm the entire group and will be blacklisted from ever cosplaying with me, no questions asked.

D) The person must fund their own costumes
-- I'm not mrs money bags. I'm not loaning you money. If you can't come up with wig/shoe money, or prereg/hotel money, I will consider this a drop out and you will be blacklisted.

E) The person must exclude all drama
-- I don't care if mars has sex with mercury's cousin. I don't care if mars and mercury ever cosplay with each other again. But you committed.  The end.

Now. I can change or update this list at anytime I see plausible. I think they're all reasonable. I think pretty much all cosplayers will see them as reasonable.

Now... some cons I'm going to [hopefully]...
Otakon 2013
--[full: unless I find a group of princesses]
Neko or Ausa 2013
Katsucon 2014
Animazement 2014
Otakon 2014

Some costumes I want to do:
(I included some pictures but I dunno if they'll work-- I'll probably get to creating a special album on fb soon
Concept Art
First gen Manga
Princesses
Swim
Kimonos
Maids
School girl outfits
Eternals

Uhh~ so the last step is message me.

Message me a con... message me a costume or multiple costumes you think would be cool and what scout you'd want to be <3

Happy cosplay! Sorry that I didn't include more pictures but I'm on my phone and its being a butt because I don't have wifi.

About Me :D

So I would do one of those #Drawmylife videos-- but I can't draw. I also suck at using the computer so usually I get other people to do computer stuff for me and they probably would not edit an entire video for me... As I've been talking to fans and stuff they seam to like to know personal things about me, so I wanted to write a little-- what got me into cosplay blerb so that you guys understood me a little bit better.

My alias is Sugar Blossom Cosplay. The name really doesn't mean much-- i just got frustrated with the Facebook name system so I ended up with that. My real name though is Micah, and I got it from my dad. My Grandma was really biblical before Alzheimers kicked in, and she made that his middle name. When my parents found out they were having a baby, I was going to be a Micah whether I was a boy or a girl. I was a girl, and ended up with a boy name. Which got me teased a lot, but the meaning of the name is pretty cool. My name means "Who is like God?"

I have an older sister, who's name is Katrina. We never really got along. The term fights like cats and dogs-- probably would apply to my relationship with my sister. We're kind of polar opposites. She's very detail oriented and I'm very creative and expressive. She inverted and i'm an extrovert. One thing that we shared though was Sailor Moon. I've seriously been watching Sailor Moon my entire life.

Because of Sailor Moon, I have an obsession with red roses. I quote it when I'm not feeling happy, and it's really my go to. It however was not my gateway into anime. As much as I watched Sailor moon and loved Japanese things, anime did not come as easy to me. Anime actually started from books-- or manga.

I am a huge reader. I read everything. I have over 800 books just chilling in various places in my rooms. My book shelves are so full that i have horizontal books on top of the vertical books and then of course stacks of books in the basement. My favorite books include The Sound and the Fury, The Tithe, Heart of Darkness, and the Truth about Forever. I want to eventually become a young adult author which is something not many people know about me.

My godfather supported my love of books. He would take me to the book store and buy me whatever I wanted. I'd usually end up with between 5-10 books, outside of Christmas time. Christmas time-- I'd easily have two of those little hand carts full of books. One time when I was picking up books, I wanted to see if they had the Sailor Moon manga, and I found out that there were other manga. I actually ended up picking up chobits, volume 3. I was so scared of being in that section that I just kind of grabbed it because I liked the art.

After this one random volume of chobits, i learned not to be embarrassed in that section. Quickly I started reading all of the other series that I could get my hands on. I read inuyasha, hana kimi, red river, wallflower... the list continues on forever. I found out that I loved Shojo. I found out what Shojo and Shonen meant, and then Shojo beat started. I have every issue of that magazine, and I read them all cover to cover and all of the manga in them.Then, I would go to the book store and specifically only buy all of the Shojo beat manga.

I had a couple friends that actually read manga too, and that was pretty cool. One of them is Nikita Iszard, artist (look her up on facebook). When we got to high school, we found out that there was an anime club. I never loved anime the way I loved manga, but being in anime club I watched a lot more than I'd ever watch by myself (not counting sailor moon). And, my president cosplayed.

On Halloween he came dresses as a red power ranger, and I think we had anime club that day. He told us about an anime convention where everybody apparently dressed up. My first con was anime-usa and then I kind of never stopped.

I didn't dress up for AUSA, but I did see a lot of awesome costumes. I wanted to join them so badly, and I went to Katsucon without a costume too. My parents though went with me to Katsucon if I remember correctly, and they started making cosplaying a possibility.

Mom always made dresses for my sister, so she already knew how to sew. Cosplaying though is completely different, but she thought that she could figure it out. For Otakon 2007, I debuted lady subaru and it was all downhill from there. I then did Princess Kakyuu for Otakon 2010. Sailor Kakyuu was debuted at Otakon 2011.

Kakyuu was really a love of mine because I sat and like gold dusted every flower individually, and I put hand stitches between them and cut them out of card stock. The details on the costume were amazing, and it really reminded me what I missed about cosplay.

My group though was what really made the catalytic thing happen. I debuted a final fantasy group at Otakon 2012. Me and my mom made all of the costumes. She did most of the sewing while I did the props and all of the fun little details. I had to do things for that group that were unimaginable to me before. I made a zanarchand symbol out of hot glue. I made guns out of wood. I made a Gippal collar out of poster board.

My boyfriend helped me with everything. He was always sanding or using the scalpel to get the correct hot glue shape and he took so many pictures for us at Otakon. I had got messaged on my cosplay account about  meeting for beautiful pictures. I was so flattered. I've never worked with Bentpic5 again, just because our schedules never worked out. But... him messaging me... and saying "Hey, your work is awesome, I would love to shoot it" really opened up my world to being a good cosplayer.

I started setting up shoots for every costume since then and every costume from now to eternity because when I got back bentpic5's pictures, I think I texted them to every single person in my phone. I was so elated.

I then started picking back up those old small cons that I had never given a second chance to. I fell back in love with Katsucon, and I hope to see more cons in my cosplay life time. It's so awesome to get to work with different people, and meet people and talk to them about the things we love and the things duct taped to our body.

If you actually read through this, I want to say thank you for looking at me on this personal level, and thank you for supporting all that I do. When I'm sitting there crying because the hot glue isn't melting right or I'm going to have to remake a whole sailor skirt because I snagged a pleat-- I go and look at all of the positive feedback from my fans and it literally means the world to me.

Thank you guys <3 .="" br="">
I would write more but I think you're probably tired of reading <<; If i get any good feed back i'll probably write a-- what cosplay means to me blerb. 

Ideas/Feelings/Etc

Cosplaying scares me right now. I don't know if it scares me more the fact that I don't feel like I'm strong enough to stand behind myself, or the fact that I don't think anyone around me cares about cosplay the way that I do. My mom seems to see it as just-- knitting. My boyfriend seems to see it as-- almost a big video game. And i seem to see it as this giant stressful knot in the back of my head.

Truth be told-- The photographer that I thought i was going to have for Katsucon basically bailed on me. I asked for a whole lot of cosplay stuff for Christmas, and I didn't get any of it. The only thing I got usable was the eyeliner that I use for conventions which is a whopping $10.

I guess it just makes me feel more like there's not anyone around her supporting me on this. They just see it as some sort of hobby and I truly want to make it my life. I want to get in cosplay magazines and I want people to see the work that I put out and to appreciate it.

Real life hasn't been the best to me right now, and I spend most of my time either at work trying not to cry, or in bed sleeping, or in bed crying. The only time I feel like i can sleep is after 4:00am, and I haven't worked on a single cosplay thing in this period of time. Anyways. I started this blog post to try to tell you what I feel about cosplay, and why it's not just dressing up in costumes.

I get told all the time that I'm beautiful, but I also get told seemingly 3x more how ugly I am. How my pants are too low, or my hair is greasy, or my piercings look trashy and there's too many of them. At cons, I slather an ass load of make-up on my face, and it's the one time i'm fair to present myself as a girl. I take out the holes, and cover them with spirit glue and concealer till I even forget their there.

Cosplaying gives me that one time that I can dress up, and I can feel beautiful in something that I made. It makes me feel whole, and it hurts me all at the same time. Every person's eyes that I don't turn kind of stings somewhere deep in my heart, and I smile but the truth is that the costumes are literally my blood, sweat, and tears and the fact that you can't give me attention hurts.

I guess that's what the 388 fans on facebook are for huh? It's hard to seem this perfect person, as well as someone normal, someone who's going to be knee deep in credit card debt because she just wants to dress up for the upcoming con. With all that pain, with all that blood sweat and tears, i get the trash talk from the people around here.

They tell me i'm not a real cosplayer because I don't know my characters well enough. They tell me i'm not beautiful and that cosplaying is just another excuse to being a glorified slut. They humiliate me and the work that I do, to the point that my boyfriend has to be the one telling me i'm beautiful a million times a night so that I can feel the umph to just go out again.

I thought that this would turn into some inspirational thing to get me up and motivated and cutting out foam feathers, but it's just kind of made me a crying ball feeling like I really suck because I can't even make myself get up and cut out foam feathers.

Next costume is Lucy from Eflen lied, and Gwendolyn from Odin Sphere. Gwendolyn may not be done until Otakon due to my wonderful lack of drive. Rogue is done. If you have any questions towards what I did for the costume just message me [here]. Maybe I'll get around to making some sort of video post or something that explains everything in detail... These are the cosplay lows... Over and out.