Adora from She-Ra : colleen_cosplaySomething I really love about She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

Adora from She-Ra : colleen_cosplaySomething I really love about She-Ra and the Princesses of Power as a show is that the characters are all strong and powerful in their own ways, but you also get to see their weaknesses. Adora has great leadership skills, she sees the best in those around her, and she is She-Ra, a super strong warrior! What really made me love Adora though, was seeing her weakness. Adora really struggles with self-worth. She wonders if she is good enough to be a leader, or good enough to be She-Ra, or good enough to save Catra. She has a huge burden of responsibility to shoulder in a world that is largely unfamiliar to her after she left the horde. Did she choose to be strong? Or was it that she was put in a situation where she had no choice but to get stronger? I resonate a lot with Adora’s weaknesses. I struggled for a long time with self worth even though a lot of people on the outside see me as very strong! I’ve taken on more responsibilities and leadership roles as I’ve grown as a cosplayer, and as a person, and sometimes I don’t feel good enough to be worthy of that responsibility. Sometimes, I don’t know if I really am strong or if I was just put in a position where I had no other choice.I went to my first con when I was 15 and once I knew what cosplay was, I knew it was something I wanted to do! That wasn’t the start of Colleen Cosplay though, that came later.When I first discovered cosplay I was still able-bodied and my free time was largely taken up by athletics. I was a cross-country athlete, horse owner, and martial artist. I did cosplay very casually, maybe one cosplay a year for Halloween or a convention I wanted to go to.By the time I was 21, my athletics days were over. It was very hard for me to sell my horse and quit athletics entirely. So I looked at what I could still do and I could still do cosplay. From there I really became obsessed with the hobby. With no other interests to compete with cosplay, I went all-in as a cosplayer. I learned to sew and craft and I started my cosplay YouTube channel! Cosplay has had a huge impact on my life since then. I spend so much time doing cosplay now and it has become a passion of mine. I made cosplay friends and I found the cosplay community and I can’t imagine quitting for anything now!”Ableism in the Cosplay Community. Let’s Talk.“ (Dec 2021) LinkWhen I first started cosplaying seriously, I was concerned about how my disability would be perceived. I hadn’t recalled seeing many disabled cosplayers, and with my disability being progressive, I knew it was only a matter of time before I would need to use mobility aids with my cosplay. I thought that surely there must be disabled cosplayers out there since there are a lot of cosplayers in the world and also a lot of disabled people in the world. I gave it a search on YouTube and ….nothing. I was surprised to find there was very little content on YouTube or even the Google search about cosplaying with a disability. For a while I tried to hide my mobility aids and pass as able-bodied when in cosplay. All the cosplay I saw around me was able-bodied so I just conformed to that. Eventually, I could hide it no longer and I started using my knee braces with my cosplays and I was surprised that I was, in some cases, treated differently because of it! People started to point out the inaccuracies of my knee braces and I started to get comments of “But this character doesn’t use a knee brace” or “is that part of the costume?”. I was immediately self conscious of my aids, but at that point I really couldn’t go without them. It took time, but I found other disabled cosplayers. There were other people who echoed my story and there were also other people who were just as lost.I decided that I never wanted anyone else to feel the way that I felt when I was starting out. I already had my YouTube channel, so I decided to use it to share my story and create a guide that my younger self could have benefitted from. I make videos covering everything from decorating mobility aids, to bringing awareness to ableism in the cosplay community.YouTube has helped me a lot! At first, it was just a distraction from what I was going through at the time, then it became a hobby, and now I see it more as a passion.YouTube has given me a way to communicate with other people and share my journey with them. I’ve met so many people through my YouTube and it has opened up a lot of opportunities for me. My channel also provided a way for other disabled people to find me and reach out and that’s how I’ve met so many people and made a lot of friends. I really feel like we have created a welcoming community on this little corner of the internet and I think it has helped a lot of people.I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback from it! I didn’t expect my content to resonate with so many people. I’ve gotten many messages from disabled cosplayers that have found confidence in watching my videos. I’ve gotten comments from able-bodied people showing understanding and empathy. I’ve gotten comments where people have decorated their mobility aids by following my tutorials! I’ve heard stories that were very similar to mine and found a whole community of disabled cosplayers from it. -- source link

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