We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Cathleen (catweeeni). We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Cathleen (catweeeni) below.
Cathleen (catweeeni), so excited to have you with us today. So much we can chat about, but one of the questions we are most interested in is how you have managed to keep your creativity alive.
I’ve always been a creative person, but I struggled a lot as I got older to keep my creativity alive. Originally, my passion was to pursue a traditional art career. From the second I could pick up a pencil, I would draw everyday and endlessly. But as I got older, I discovered a talent for sewing, and combined with my love for pop and otaku culture, my main creative outlet became cosplay.
I started cosplaying when I was around 12 years old back in 2012, and at this time, ready-made cosplays were much harder to purchase in the US. But because I was so determined to cosplay all of my favorite characters, I bought a beginner’s sewing machine and self-taught myself everything I needed to know, such as how to sew, make my own patterns, and different types of fabrics.
When I was around my later teenage years to early adulthood, I stopped being as creative, such as drawing daily or creating cosplays. I was in the International Baccalaureate program in high school, and then went to a top university in California for college, where I felt like I had no time to nourish my creativity on the side.
During the pandemic lockdown, I rediscovered my love for all my creative avenues. Because otaku culture was becoming more mainstream in the US, I could get back into cosplaying much easier with premade costumes and an abundance of wigs on more accessible sites. I quickly dove back into my love for cosplay, where I started transforming my personal Instagram account into the influencer cosplay account I still use to this day. Behind the scenes, I would tailor premade costumes to fit better, and learn various wig techniques such as creating wefts and making fake hairlines. This furthered my love and desire to cosplay more.
When the lockdown ended, I started to return to my normal life at school and work, but I also could start going to conventions again. Now, I not only could express my creativity through photos and videos of my cosplays, but I got to be creative with other cosplayers in the community. Since then, I have been keeping my creativity alive by creating new cosplay content that I wear to in-person events and share photos of it to my community of fellow cosplayers and fans of otaku culture.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
Though it’s still primarily a hobby, I spend majority of my free time dedicated to cosplaying. I started cosplaying and attending my first conventions in the early 2010s, and ever since then I’ve stayed dedicated to my goals of dressing up as all of my favorite fictional characters.
I also had a lifelong dream of pursuing an art career, which I try to integrate it into my cosplay hobby by drawing and printing out freebie stickers to pass out at conventions!
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
For other cosplayers, I think the three qualities you should always strive to achieve are: passion, honesty, and confidence.
Passion is so necessary for a hobby based on being a fan of something. I see a lot of beginner cosplayers get burnt out so quickly because they just want to cosplay whatever is popular or trending and then lose their passion. You should cosplay whatever you’re passionate about, whether it’s well known or a personal favorite!
Honesty is important as someone part of a community, and also to yourself. It’s good to be honest with other people in your cosplay community about your boundaries and beliefs. It’s also important to be honest to yourself, such as, “Can I really crunch this costume in 24 hours before the convention?” Sometimes we become too prideful in our own abilities that we forget it’s okay to wear something unfinished or save it for the next event!
Confidence is by far the most important quality anyone, cosplayer or not, can have. Having confidence in yourself is something that everyone has a unique journey to obtain, and even then still is hard to fully believe at all times, but it is necessary to live your life to the fullest. In cosplay, it’s necessary to truly pull off the characters you want to be! Don’t be shy and wear what you want!
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
I had multiple amazing opportunities in 2024 to work with a multitude of different organizations/companies as a featured cosplayer at various events, and I would love to continue to appear at future events as one again! I have such a lovely relationship with the organizers of past events I have worked for and am so grateful for them believing in me and my skills. I am always open to hearing about new cosplay opportunities and I really hope to continue meeting new people with the same enthusiasm as me!
The best way to contact me for a collaboration is through email: catweeeni@gmail.com . Please give me a few business days to respond, especially if it’s during my busier convention seasons! If you’d like to see my past work at other shows, please feel free to send an inquiry or browse my Instagram page for former guesting announcements.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://beacons.ai/catweeeni
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/catweeeni
- Twitter: https://x.com/catweeeni
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