Cosplayer of the Week: Pretend Princess
Hey everyone! I hope you all had a fantastic week! We have a great cosplayer this week by the name of Pretend Princess! She is a Arizona cosplayer that focuses on mostly DC Comic characters but also dabbles in other genres such as Star Trek, X-Men, and Doctor Who. She is incredibly sweet, hard working, and pretty darn funny! While I do enjoy her many cosplays, it is her charming personality that really made me want to have her as Cosplayer of the Week!
I hope you enjoy our interview!
The Geek Lyfe: There may be a few Geek Lyfers who have not seen your work before, would you be alright introducing yourself?
Pretend Princess: Hi there! My name is Coral. Yup, that’s my real name. It was given to me by my adventurous parents who conceived me during a scuba diving trip. Crazily enough, I’m a 90s kid living in Arizona. Nope, not near an ocean. The desert! It’s my home & I’m so happy it was here that I grew up. I’m a biiiig Batman & Disney fangirl. I live for them both. I’ve watched the movies & cartoons, read the books & comics, & when it comes to Disney, I know the lyrics to almost every song.
TGL: How long have you been into cosplay and what led you down this path?
PP: It’s been eight years since I started, which was back in 2009. High school days! I had been begging my mom to let me dress up & go to a local convention for YEARS until finally, one glorious Saturday morning, she budged & let my dad take me to my first Phoenix Comicon. I was so estatic I was literally vibrating. I had been waiting so long for this moment. I didn’t cosplay at my first con, but that butterfly feeling hasn’t left me. This is exactly what I wanna do for the rest of my life, simply because it makes me that happy. I think I was twelve when I discovered cosplay. I had the internet at my fingertips (oops) & once I found out I could dress up as Sailor Moon & make friends with others who would dress up with me? Ohh, I was so in! I had always been so creative growing up. I played pretend ALL the time! So honestly, I’m getting to continue my childhood in a way…I’ve just evolved what I did before. I don’t think I could live any other way. I just love dressing up too much.
TGL: What has been your favorite moment?
PP: This took a reaaaally long time for me to decide. Had to go back into the memory bank to truly figure out which one was my favorite. There was a BIG zombie walk happening on a Saturday 
night in October. So my friend & I made some Silent Hill costumes in one night. We were so stoked, nothing was gonna stop us. We pulled it off pretty damn well, not gonna lie. It was my favorite because not only did we pull it off looks wise, we killed it with the acting. Scaring people was awesome. It felt like success. Hahaha!
TGL: What was the worst day for you in your cosplay career, what happened, and how did you deal with it?
PP: I made a costume I didn’t really care to do, last minute, for a convention…& it fell apart within the first hour. I threw it away & said I’d never cosplay a character I didn’t love ever again. Just doesn’t work for me.
TGL: When you aren’t doing this, what do you do in your spare time?
PP: My hobbies include hiking, running, dancing (alone, by myself, cuz I suck, but I’m trying to learn lol), exploring new places…and playing pretend, otherwise known as cosplaying!
TGL: What geek medium(Video Games, Comic Books, Novels, Movies etc.) made the biggest impact on your life and why?
PP: Kingdom Hearts. I was a teenager going through teenagery stuff. Family problems, friend problems, self problems…y’know, that. It made me really closed off & depressed. That video game got me through a lot because the messages it taught gave me hope. It instilled enough positivity in me to push through it & find things to be happy about. Like nature, music, & making a keyblade out of cardboard & swingin’ it around at invisible heartless in your backyard. Hey, don’t judge. It worked.
TGL: If you could live in any geeky universe, which one would it be and why? (Naruto, Harry Potter, Pokemon, Lord of the Rings etc.)
PP: DC UNIVERSE! Get me closer to Batman puh-leeeease! If I lived within that world, I’d be the equivalent of Harley, but to the Bat. Imagine me in a lonely Gotham apartment, scrapbooking every newspaper clipping that praised Batman, every blurry photo, drawings of me & him. Oh yeah, then I’d have to have my own hero costume! I’d probably model if after Batman’s look, but black, pink, & yellow. Yup, he’d hate me. I would be so annoying. Trying to fight crime, failing terribly, getting myself in trouble instead. Oooooh boy.
TGL: Do you have any projects in the near future we should be excited to see?
PP: I’m currently putting together “Bat Quinn”. It’s a twist, where Harley falls for/obsesses over the Bat instead of the Joker & makes herself a superhero costume in hopes of winning Batman’s attention & favor. It’s gonna be a lot of fun! I even have a cape! After that I will be working on my classic Harley Quinn, from Batman: The Animated Series.
TGL: Out of the costumes you have done in the past, which one has been the most difficult and why?
PP: The hardest costume was nurse Harley from the video game Arkham Asylum. Again, inexperienced teenager in high school, I was hand sewing it in my lap, under my desk, during class. It didn’t fit all too well & I made lots of mistakes, including not finishing the costume completely…but I still wore it to a convention in 2010. I trashed it after that, but I REALLY wanna give that costume another go & do it better justice than I showed it before.
TGL:What advice do you have for any aspiring cosplayers out there?
PP: JUST. DO. IT!!! MAKE YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE! Don’t listen to what haters say & don’t let insecurities stop you from doing what you really wanna do. I recommend doing as much research as you can online before starting any project. Read up, figure out what it’s gonna take. There’s lots of forums & YouTube videos available to help answer any cosplay question. Thankfully the cosplay community can be pretty giving & there’s loads of tutorials on the internet. Then when you start, don’t stop. Don’t loose hope when it gets hard & don’t neglect/forget about it in the corner. Finish your costume, wear it, & go have fun! That’s what helps me, I hope it helps you too.
Be sure to check out more of Pretend Princess‘ shenanigans on her Facebook or Instagram! 😀 We’d like to thank her so much for taking the time to answer our questions!
Chicano | Fighting/Writing for Diversity | DM since 08 | Anime Lover | Site: https://www.thegeeklyfe.com | info@thegeeklyfe.com | http://twitch.tv/that_deangelo | https://linktr.ee/deangelomurillo
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