I wanted to put my skills to the test by making five CLAMP cosplay because I absolutely love CLAMP. The Sakura-viewing outfits were always one that I was attracted to because they were downright beautiful and I wanted to feel pretty for once in my life

Since there were five of us, I ended up taking Sayoron-Li and doing his outfit again only opposite, as in the series he finds his own opposite clone, if you want to call it that.

I entered us in the Intermediate level of Nan Desu Kan’s cosplay competition because I thought that’s all I would ever be able to do. And while I didn’t win any awards that year. I got cornered by my new friends from the department and was told I wouldn’t be allowed to compete anymore if I didn’t move up to Master’s level.

That was the push I needed to really expand not only my skills, but my confidence.

I started cosplaying in 2003. My high school best friend and I learned about anime cons and we were just about to start our sophomore year of high school. I was 15 at the time. We had learned about Otakon in Baltimore, MD and looked online and saw everyone in costumes, so we thought it was required! That very first year, I cosplayed Iruka from Naruto and while at the time I thought it was needed to go to a con, I soon fell in love with the art form.

I grew up in the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) with my dad, which was medieval reenactment, and got interested in a lot of the things shown there. So to me, cosplay was building on that interest with something I loved, which was anime. I learned that you could cosplay literally anything, so while I love anime, I got drawn more and more to video games because of their complex outfits. When I DO make something from anime, I put my own spin on things to make a 2D animation look amazing in 3D

Since then, my cosplay career has blossomed. I’ve won multiple well-deserved awards in Master’s level, I’ve judged many cosplay competitions with the idea of being 100% positive, I’ve started to work for a group within the state that promotes an inclusive environment, and I’ve made so many friends in the community that further cements that EVERYONE can cosplay, no matter what.

https://www.instagram.com/trinityren/