My first “official” cosplay was GLaDOS from the video game Portal, which I wore to Montreal Comic Con in 2013 – marking my 10th cosplay anniversary. While I had been interested in costuming since my teenage years, this was the first costume I specifically made for attending a convention, making it my first true cosplay, in my opinion, despite having made other costumes in the past. Over the past decade, while I have made mistakes, I have also made significant progress in my cosplay hobby. Despite my errors, I am proud of the many things I have done right. For my GLaDOS costume, I put my own spin on the character by creating a “human” version of her, which was uncommon at the time when cosplays tended to be screen-accurate. This unique take on the character unintentionally made me the center of attention. The costume was also designed with lighting, but ten years ago, this was not a common feature in cosplay and wearable tech was a novelty. To achieve the glowing effect, I used glowsticks instead of EL wire or fibre optics as they were more readily available than the LEDs we have today. I cracked the glowsticks and […]