Alex Thwaits is sophomore at Sahuaro and she loves cosplaying. Cosplay is dressing up as your favorite character from a movie, book, or video game.

Alex started cosplaying when she was in 7th grade. What made her get into cosplay was her passion for playing video games and getting really into anime. She met a friend who pushed her into doing it, and has done it ever since. She makes most of her costumes, but sometimes buys parts of the costumes and adds on to them or works off of them.

The materials she uses range from EVA foam to cardboard. She also uses many different high-quality paints – you could have crappy materials, but good paint jobs can hide just about anything. Alex tries to work on her cosplay every weekend. She has two part-time jobs that help her get the materials she needs for her costumes.

When I asked her what type of cosplay she does, she replied ,”I dress up as my favorite character.” Her favorite character is Ela from Rainbow 6 siege. Her favorite costume that she has made was a costume from the game Bioshock Infinite. She did a group cosplay and was a character named Elizabeth. She’s one of her favorite characters from one of her favorite games.

Alex goes to Comic-Con conventions every three weeks varying from Tucson and Phoenix conventions. She mostly goes to game conventions.  “My favorite Con was probably Game-On-Con. It was all about video games and it really piqued my interest in new games and consoles.” Most of the time, at these conventions, she usually goes around and buys stuff from vendors. She has many vendor friends, so she likes to catch up with them. Other times she would go catch panels or walk around the Con floor and meet new people.

Alex only does small cosplays right now because she has to balance school and work. Most of her costumes take about a month and a half. Some of them that she really likes, she will spend extra time on. “People see cosplay as a weird thing but it’s not. You get to meet new people who share the same interest as you.”