Hello everyone, I'm Serena, I'm Italian, I live in London
I have Salvadorian origins and I speak Japanese
no, ok , let's start again
Hello everyone, I'm Serena and today you will see a very particular look
meanwhile I get ready, I want to tell you something about my past
one of my thoughts
Let's start
Let's start with 2 important elements
As most of all already know, the first one is Body Positiviy I'm very attached to
the second one is Geek world
anime, manga, videogames and Cosplay world so all those people who dress up
like manga, anime, videogame, book, TV series characters
There is a big difference between what it means Cosplay nowadays and
Cosplay at the beginning when I was a child
because before it was like
for few people
there were very few people at conventions and we know each others
it seemed like a secret club of aficionados
little by little I go on- but I will spend most part of the video looking for things
When I was 16, I did Cosplay and
I was sooo shy and so thin, but I felt unconfortable cause my body
but
doing Cosplay pushed me to feel more confortable little by little
having fun, dressing in a certain way
without
feel embarrassment. There were some clothes I've never dressed in real life, but in Cosplay I did
without embarrassment because I identified with the character
trying
to do my best to perform
At the beginning it was very nice
but like other things, even Cosplay
has become
much more mainstream. Lot of people joined conventions from others countries, with different size body
and I often heard someone saying
"Oh my God, how does she dress up? She coundn't dress like this"
that often happen in Italy, even in those conventions
I didn't like
I wanted this world stay as in the past, without people being judged
When I came back to Italy after living in Japan
I met some friends of mine who shared this passion and I decided to join it again
but my body had changed a lot
I got fat so in my soul I always thought about those comments like
"You're not similar to this character because
this is a Japanese student and they are very very thin
with very thin legs that you will never have"
In the past, it wasn't a problem not being exactly like the character
but now it testifies how
Cosplay world has changed
very bad comments, back stabbing and so on
were part of this world
and they were part
of my thoughts
People who badly judge other people make me think that I coud be victim of those critiques
It is a little sad because it was a very funny event
and a safe space turned into a critical and judgement space
where you can't feel confortable
when you do something, other people judge
As social media have become so spread
this thing got worse because you can leave an anonymous comment
every day I receive lot of comments by people
who have to judge my body
"You can't interpret this character because
you're not thin enough or shapely
or white or black or Japanese enough"
Comments that kill the real aim of this convention
This world was born to fight prejudices but it became a victim too
Few days ago I was watching a black plus size woman interview
who does Cosplay of DC characters
her photo was posted on a website to
compare with another woman thiner than her who played the same character
This kind of things doesn't have good results
You are judging a person who spent lot of time in her dress
doing something she likes and you are stealing her pleasure
her funning
About me
When I re-started in 2013
I said to my friends: "Oh, I want to play this role, I let it
apart when I will lose weight
I thought this very often
and this makes me sad because
it was part of me but very far from Body Positivity
like "ok, I will start living again when I will be thiner" like my actual size isn't worthy
I'm very happy now
RIP eye-liner
to have let this thoughts throw away
so I decided to release myself and I choose a character very similar to me
because playful industries understood that
producing the same female characters was a little bit boring because ok, you're thin with
big boobs
but you're similar to others
so according to new videogames and titles
female characters have different bodies. One of this videogames I play very often is
Overwatch
It is about shooting by teams
in which there are lot of female and male characters
I like all the female ones because
they all have different bodies, thin or a little bit plump,
or very strapping ones. My favourite one is a
plump Chinese scientist
When China discovers than Chinese character was
a chubby girl
rises up because in Asia being a ilttle bit plump is
a taboo, it is considered
in negative way yet
This pushed me to appreciate more Mei character, which is very often my videogame character
so I decided
to cerebrate as better as I can
It is like a revenge for me
I get self-confidence and I get things I lost because I thought I wasn't enough
How is short hair?
It is so funny the reflected glass
If you liked this video, leave me like and a comment and subscribe otherwise I freeze you.
Next week there will be another video, let me know what you think about, if you ever did Cosplay
if you wanted to but you've never felt confident with your body
and we will meet in a next video
Stai d'andata
Stai bene
