Cosplay Saved my Life: The Video Blog

Body dysmorphia is something I have always struggled with. It was destroying my life... until I started cosplaying. I decided to share my story with this raw, personal video blog. Please watch and subscribe to my channel! And share your own stories with me in the comments - I'd love to hear from you.

Adventures: The Ballard Locks and Fish Ladder in Seattle

Those are huge salmon!

What happens when I try to do a self portrait with Gregg -_-

My dress: Urban Outfitters (Similar) // Galaxy Leggings: Romwe (Similar) // Sunglasses: Nasty Gal (Similar) // Boots: Thrifted (Similar) // Denim Jacket: Thrifted (Similar) // Quartz Necklace: Etsy (Similar) // Cat Bag: eBay

One of my favorite things is playing tourist in my own city.  Seattle has no shortage of interesting destinations, and even though I've lived here close to 4 years, there's still a lot of places I haven't visited. On Saturday Gregg and I decided to go to the Ballard Locks and Fish Ladder. The Ballard Locks is a passage from the sea to the boat canal, and it's very interesting to watch the water levels change and the boats come and go. On top of that, the Locks are also home to the Fish Ladder, a man made salmon spawning area. As many of you probably know, salmon swim upstream to spawn. So Seattle made its own upstream rapids for salmon to come lay eggs in! It's REALLY amazing - there's spawning salmon everywhere, and you can go underground and see them through a viewing window!

I was raised in Alaska and I'm VERY familiar with salmon, so I was entirely smitten by the experience. I think I could happily go back and spend hours there, just watching the fish doing their thing.

Oh, I haven't talked about Gregg on the Geeky Peacock yet, have I? We met about a month ago via OkCupid and it quickly became apparent that the two of us needed to be dating, stat. We have a ridiculous amount of things in common (he has a tattoo of my favorite manga on his arm!!), have well aligned life goals/philosophies, etc. Suffice to say... I'm very happy. Oh, and he's in an excellent band that you should check out: Golden Gardens. Isn't he handsome? ;-)

Do you guys have any suggestions of places I should play tourist in Seattle or the surrounding areas (besides the obvious)?

Outfit #65: Jameson is my Boyfriend

Shirt: Blood is the new Black // Skirt: Forever 21 (Similar) // Shoes: JustFabulous (Similar) // Black Ring: Forever 21 (Similar) // Turquoise Ring: eBay (Similar) // Hat: H&M // Jacket: LoveCulture (Similar)

I'm BAAAAACCKKKK! I'm going to go on the record right now to say that I promise I will start posting outfit pictures as often as possible once again. Now that I don't have someone to photograph me, I'm figuring out how to use my tripod to photograph myself. My lovely bestie Sarah Hiraki took these for me in the meantime.

I apologize for the state of my nails. I've been way too lazy lately.

Adventures: Washington State Renn Faire

Becki made these wings HERSELF. She's too talented.

Rat circus!!!

The Geeky Peacock's Royal Counterpart!

This last weekend I went with my friends Celeste, Becki, and Gene to the Washington Renaissance Faire. Somehow, it was my first actual Renn Faire - before this I had only been to LARPing festivals. Let me tell you: I HAD A BLAST.

I walked around in costume (as a Necromancer!), drank some amazing mead, watching jousting (a man in plate maille atop a horse? BE STILL MY HEART), saw a baudy play where the actors ran around stage with giant paper mache penises, acquired some amazing Washington brewed root beer, salivated over leather costumes I couldn't afford... It was amazing. Next year I am DEFINITELY camping out. All night debauchery, please and thank you!

Apartment Sweet Apartment: Jewelry and Makeup Organization

Growing up, I was a terribly messy child. No matter how much my mother yelled and screamed, my bedroom always looked like a hurricane came through it. Moving into my first apartment it wasn't much better. I had a horrible habit of leaving clothes all over the place, not washing my dishes... it was gross. I was gross.

Now that I'm older, I'm NEUROTIC about my apartment. I get anxiety if everything doesn't have a place, and if people come over and everything isn't "just so". My biggest problem was that I didn't know how to ORGANIZE things. Thanks to the wonder of Pinterest, I've learned this skill... and I've been slowly but surely tucking my two bedroom apartment away into boxes and hooks and all sorts of little nooks.

I have a lot of jewelry and makeup, so my bathroom was a long time coming. This is what my CURRENT setup looks like, though it's bound to change in the near future. I got the dresser off of Craigslist and organized it with little dividers from Daiso. The bowls are all thrift store finds. My ex boyfriend's mom got me the cool hands. The AMAZING jewelry rack I got off of Amazon a few years back. This corner of my apartment makes me so happy.

I'M GOING TO BE ON TV!!!

Ever since I was a little girl, I've been a camera ham. When my father was trying to take beautiful landscapes of my home state of Alaska, I was attempting to leap in the lens. When my mother was making home videos of our home construction, I was streaking through scenes in a princess dress, screaming monologues from Disney movies. This love to entertain has stuck with me throughout my life, as I became involved in theatre and singing, comedy and public speaking. I like to be in the spotlight. I like to entertain people - be it on a Comedy Channel on YouTube or telling entertaining stories at a party - I like to make people laugh and smile.

I always knew I wanted to be on TV. It was the natural next step for me. And finally my dream is coming true.

I am one of the stars of SyFy's upcoming reality TV show FANGASM, premiering September 24th at 10pm on SyFy channel. I spent the summer living in a house with six other amazing geeks. Shenanigans were had, tears were shed - I yelled a lot, I cosplayed, I missed my dog and my manga collection, I celebrated being a geek - and now you all get to share it with me.

Fangasm is a six part docu-series about the lives of fanboys and fangirls. I hope you tune in, and in the meantime follow Fangasm on Twitter here or on Facebook here.

This entire thing is still super surreal to me. To know that all of my dreams are finally, finally coming true... it's an intense experience. And this is when I get mushy: I honestly would not be here without the support of the thousands of you who have believed in me and my dreams for all of these years. Inside I'm still just the awkward geek girl I've always been, but I owe all of my success to all of YOU. Without you, I would be nothing. I hope I do you proud.