Gemma: [00:00:00] I like cute and pink and I'm, I'm very eccentric, so I wanna,

I wanna express that in my cosplay. Like if, if they look boring, I'm gonna

change it and I wanna be proud of it and like, See myself in it.

Malaika: Welcome to Happy Medium, a podcast where artists make art on the

spot while creating art. With host me, Malaika Hollist, we chat on topics like

the days of doodling in their diary, how self-love gave them confidence or on

building a successful art career using only old boxes. This podcast made by W

U S F Public Media is about one's journey to finding self through a creative

medium.

Malaika: Gemma loves cosplay because it is a space where she feels free to be

the most authentic version of herself. This [00:01:00] conversation focuses on

what cosplay is and how characters and costumes and power Gemma. Hi

everyone. Welcome back to Happy Medium. My name's Malaika, and today we

have Gemma Honors, our guest.

Malaika: Um, Gemma, do you wanna introduce yourself?

Gemma: Yeah. Um, my name is Gemma, obviously I'm 16. I've lived here like

my whole life and I just like to cosplay.

Malaika: We are doing a fruit collage, so here's what it looks like. It's got

pineapples, oranges, bananas. We have noticed that the color, it's paint by

numbers and the numbers don't seem to properly match the paint, so we're just

gonna see where it goes.

Malaika: So Gemma, what does cosplay mean to you?

Gemma: I was thinking about this one and this like, it's kind of hard for me to

answer. Yeah. Because it's like, it's something I've done for a long time and that

I'm. Like, I'm proud of it, so it just became part of my identity. It's just like one

of those things. Okay. It's like, it's like a feeling.

Gemma: I don't know how to explain. [00:02:00] Mm. It's something I've

always loved and I'll continue to do because it's just like, that's just, it's in there.

It's, it's in there. Yeah.

Malaika: When did you, when did you start doing it?

Gemma: Like the beginning of quarantine.

Malaika: Okay. So you were just bored at home and were like, let me,

Gemma: yeah. I kept seeing people on TikTok do it and I was like, oh, that's

cool.

Gemma: I wanna do that. Yeah. I like these characters. So I did it

Malaika: Before quarantine, did you like to like dress up or like find like

unique pieces of clothing and stuff like that? I did. Yeah. Yeah. That's fun. You

said you do it with your friends at school, like, do you guys like come up with

new characters together or do you have like your favorite characters?

Gemma: We do like our favorite characters. Um, usually we do it at

conventions and stuff. I go to a uniform school. Mm-hmm. Okay. So the only

time we can is when it's like the Halloween Spirit Day. Yeah. But we do, we do

do it. Then we like to just dress up and hang out together cuz it's just fun and it

brings people together, you know?

Malaika: Yeah. [00:03:00] So you're in, you're in a cosplay costume today?

Mm-hmm. What, what's this one? Can you tell me like, the inspiration?

Gemma: Her name is Ichigo from Tokyo Mio. Okay. They're like, they're like

magical cats.

Malaika: Oh, I love it. Wait, what's their magic?

Gemma: They have like powers and they're like, they're like magical girls, like

Sailor Moon.

Malaika: Okay. So, but they're cats.

Gemma: Yeah, but they have like cat ears and stuff. I just, I lost my cat ears.

Malaika: Oh. So Oh, darn. You love cat ears.

Malaika: Yeah. So did you, how did you find this costume? Did you like make

it yourself parts of it, or did you find it?

Gemma: Um, I got it for Christmas. Oh. From my grandma. So sweet.

Malaika: I like it. I like all the little, like hair details too.

Malaika: All the like bras and stuff. Is that part of her costume too?

Gemma: The cat? No, I did that myself. It's like my own custom thing. Cause I

like to add personal stuff. Mm-hmm. Like, I can't really feel, but some of these I

made.

Malaika: Yeah. Once is twice and then one [00:04:00] has, um, a skull. A skull

with bones. There's some cute little, like, I, I can't, yeah.

Gemma: Yeah. But I like to like, make stuff for them. I like to collect parts and

like put it together to make it like my own. Mm-hmm. So cool.

Malaika: When you do cosplay with your friends, when did you guys decide

that you preferred doing that than the kind of like, quote unquote typical

hobbies that are going on in school?

Malaika: Cause I'm guessing there's not a ton of you doing it in school Well, or

is there? Maybe it is.

Gemma: No, there's not. There's not. But I like the typical hobbies too. Like, I

like, yeah. I like to do a lot of like normal things. Mm-hmm. I'm on like the

school cheer team. Like, okay. Like I study a lot, like. Like, I like to do a lot of

like normal things, but this is just like, this is the most fun for me.

Gemma: Yeah. I just found like a love for it.

Malaika: So what other, like, what other arts do you like to do?



Gemma: I like to draw uhhuh. I like to, I just like to craft a general too. Like I,

[00:05:00] I like to sew. Okay. I, I've been working on for my cosplays.

Malaika: I used to sew badly, but I took a sewing class in high school and we

learned how to like, use a sewing machine.

Malaika: And I had made a bunch of different, um, pillows for my mom, which

were like all around the house and they really didn't match her decor, but she

put 'em out anyway because I put a lot of time into them, but it was, I kind of

forgot how to sew. And then a couple years ago I bought a sewing machine

again.

Malaika: And relearned, and then I've forgotten again. I've like have, I have a

bit of a bad habit of starting hobbies and then forgetting how to do them. So I'm

trying to get back into sewing because it's so easy to fix little issues with your

clothes if you know how to like hem and stuff.

Gemma: I had to sew this right before we came.

Malaika: Oh, you did? Why? What happened?

Gemma: Um, this is like, it has like a lace back and like the lace, like it broke

into like three different pieces and then like the loops to put it through Uhhuh,

those broke and then we [00:06:00] couldn't get the lace through. Then we did

eventually, cuz my mom had to help me because I was, I was like going crazy,

but it still, like, it still wasn't fitting right.

Gemma: So I like I hand sewed before we left, like little loops with thread and

then I put a ribbon through it to like tie it back. Wow. Because it, it is an easy

fix.

Malaika: Yeah, well easy for you, you know what you're doing. I would've

been like, um, do you have any glue? What, what should I do? So when it

comes to cosplay, do you have like specific characters that you like to be, and if

so, what is it?

Malaika: What is it about those characters that you like so much?

Gemma: Yeah, I do and most of the time it's cuz of their design either cuz I like

all the cute pink ones. Mm-hmm. Or it's just like their personality. Like I like,

and I, I'm like, oh, that's my favorite character, so I'm gonna dress it as them. Or

like, if you find them relatable, so that's usually why. Yeah.

Malaika: So you said that you also like them because of their, like their

costumes or like their look [00:07:00] what, like what's, what's their look?

Gemma: I like it when they're cute. This, what's this one? When they're cute,

peachy, go. Yeah. I like, I like cute and pink and I'm, I'm very eccentric, so I

wanna, I wanna express that in my cosplays, obviously.

Gemma: Yeah. So, Like if, like if, if they look boring, I'm gonna change it.

Malaika: Yeah. So you want it to be something that doesn't look like

everything else that's out there?

Gemma: Yeah. Yeah. And I wanna be proud of it and like see myself in it.

Malaika: Yeah, I feel like, I mean, this one's definitely doing that. It's really

fun. It just feels fun and happy and I like the pink.

Malaika: Do you have a favorite character, like at this point in time and why

they're your favorite character?

Gemma: I like Kokame a lot. She might be my favorite.

Malaika: What does she do?

Gemma: She's like, she's from a game and she's like, got water healing power.

It's like, she's like a fish. Oh. And then I also like Cowering Muzuno from Your

Lie in April

Gemma: mm-hmm. She's one of my favorites too.

Malaika: What is she, what's her, what's her special thing?

Gemma: She plays the violin like me. [00:08:00]

Malaika: Oh, you play the violin too? I used to always want to play the violin.

I, I didn't get around to it. I got ended up playing the guitar instead. Which I

think might have been slightly easier, but I love like all string instruments.

Gemma: I love string instruments.

Malaika: Yeah, they're very calming.

Malaika: We hope you are enjoying Happy Medium. Our podcast is made in

collaboration with W U S F Public Media, Arts Axis Florida, and the NPR

network. Arts Axis Florida is your online destination for finding content on all

things art going on in your area. Go to Arts Axis, that's a x i s florida.org to

learn more and find all Happy Medium podcast episodes.

Malaika: When you go to the, um, cosplay conventions, cuz you've been to a

few, right? Oh yeah. [00:09:00] How like, so what exactly happens at them?

Gemma: Um, so you hang out with your friends, you like meet up with other

people. Like if you see someone from the same show as you, you like, you hang

out with them, you make a lot of friends.

Gemma: Um, you eat the really expensive food, it's really annoying. It's like

$10 for hotdog. And then there's a lot of shopping, like items you won't find at

like Target or something uhhuh like you'll find there.

Malaika: Is it items that help like. Can like create your costumes or is it like

items to like, that are marketing towards the show?

Gemma: Marketing towards the show mostly. Okay. Sometimes you see like

fashion stuff and accessories, but mostly it's just like fan art and stuff, like

artists selling their work. Mm.

Malaika: So then when you, when you go to those, how long do you prep to get

your costume ready beforehand? Cause I'm guessing like you probably, this is

like the big event.

Gemma: Um, I like to like switch it up with the characters. I do. And like, I

don't wanna, like if I went as a character to the [00:10:00] last convention, I

don't wanna do them again. Mm-hmm. Like I wanna, I like to do a lot of

different things and if my friends are going as something, sometimes we all

wanna match and we'll be like, right.

Gemma: Oh, that'll be fun. So a lot of times me and my friends talk about it

together to see if like, we can do it together.

Malaika: Okay. So if you could create any character, like your own character,

I. What would

Malaika: they,

Gemma: I was thinking about this. Yeah.

Gemma: Okay. So she would be pink, of course, but like she would have like

really long pink hair with like glitter and sparkles and pearls.

Gemma: Yeah. She'd be a fairy princess. Okay. Big pink dress. And she would

have magical love healing powers. Oh, she would speak to animals.

Malaika: I like that. I like the magical love healing powers. Especially, she can

like, All she has to do is, yeah. And everyone feels better. Well, that's fun. How

do you feel like you have creative freedom when you're, you have a certain

character?

Gemma: So [00:11:00] I feel like since I don't have to like be like constrained

to like myself as a person mm-hmm. I can, and this is a fictional character, I can

interpret it however I want because media can be interpreted however you want

really. Yeah. So, um, I like to do it the way I see them and I. Feel like I have the

freedom to do that, you know?

Malaika: Yeah. The freedom comes from like being able to be like another

person or another. Yeah. Yeah. I get that. I get that. Where do you find your

costumes? I know I'm sure you order some things, but do you go to like vintage

stores or like thrifting?

Gemma: I do a lot like, um, I like to like buy them like secondhand, like collect

stuff or make stuff that I think like, oh, if.

Gemma: Like looking at the big picture. Yeah. Like I'll draw it out and I'll be

like, oh, I'm gonna make this, I'm gonna buy this. I'm gonna put these all

together and then customize this. Mm-hmm. So that I can make this. I made a

cosplay out of of duct tape once. [00:12:00] That's interesting.

Malaika: What was it? Did you make like a dress?

Gemma: Um, it was from Love Live. It was like, just like it's vinyl, but they

don't sell them anymore. Mm-hmm. So I made my own, but it's really

uncomfortable. Yeah. Because it's duct tape and I wrapped myself in Saran

wrap and then I cut it and then I duct tape that. Wow. And then I added like

holes in the back and then I put ribbons so I could lace it up.

Malaika: How would you describe yourself today? And what are some, what

are some things you wanna do kind of in the next year when it comes to

cosplay?

Gemma: Um, I like. That I'm happy and that's big and that I do what I love and

that I don't really get scared of like what other people think anymore. Mm-hmm.

Because that used to be a big problem for me, um, because like I had a lot of

insecurities going into cosplay.

Gemma: Like, oh, my [00:13:00] acne will show. Mm-hmm. Or like, oh, I have

Tourette's. My tics will like, so yeah. But. It's like, but as I did it and Maya got

more comfortable, I felt more comfortable myself in like real life scenarios too.

Yeah. And in the future, I want to do a photo shoot with a fancy photographer.

Can I promote something?

Malaika: Yes, of course. Tell them where they can find you.

Gemma: Um, well I have a TikTok, the username is glimmer cake. And then

my friend May and I, um, we're starting in cosplay group. Where you dress up

as idols from Love Live, the Muse Group. And we're scouting for members to

like practice dance with us and perform with us.

Gemma: So if you're interested in that, um, our Instagram for that is it's dot l i l

l a a. That's i ts dot l i l l a a.

Malaika: Yay. Thank you. Thank you so much for being here with us. Mmhmm.

This was really fun. And we'll [00:14:00] see you guys in the next

episode.

Gemma: Bye-Bye.

Malaika: Thank you for listening to Happy Medium. You can find more info

about the guest and other episodes in the show notes below, or go to our

website, arts axis florida.org. Thank you to our sponsors, Community

Foundation Tampa Bay, building a vibrant, prosperous community through

transformative vision, leadership, and philanthropy at cftampabay.org.

Malaika: And the Gobioff Foundation supporting human rights organizations

and the Tampa Florida arts community at gobiofffoundation.org. Lastly, thank

you to PRX for consulting on this podcast, the Arts Axis Florida team and the

Florida Department of State Divisions of Arts and Culture for making these

episodes possible.

Malaika: Copyright 2023 W U S F Public media.[00:15:00]

Subscribe to these Podcasts