Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrea Diaz.
Hi Andrea, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Hello, my name is Andrea and I am a local Cosplayer and small business owner that focuses on my art. I have a passion for creating, and the best part about Cosplaying is that I get to WEAR what I make, which gives me an adrenaline rush just talking about it. My first costume I ever made was actually on my way to 5th grade. I wasn’t allowed to dress up for Halloween growing up, but I always felt like it would be such a great outlet for creativity, so I had my mom drop me off two blocks away from school so I could walk, and on my way there I found some dead palm tree leaves and collected them and made myself a hula skirt. That sparked my passion for making costumes but specifically making costumes out of household objects. I’m a firm believer that costuming and cosplaying doesn’t have to be expensive. You can make most anything out of things that are laying around your house.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
It hasn’t been a smooth road. Surprisingly it gives you a lot of weird looks from people who don’t know what it is. There’s also a lot of struggles within the cosplay community, like making sure your costume is appropriate to a culture you’re representing and that you always give proper credit to another artist if your costume idea is being borrowed from somebody else. My personal struggles were breaking free from the stigma my family created around it. Like I mentioned earlier, my family didn’t allow me to dress up for Halloween due to religious reasons. My goal was to tell them that I did this because it was my creative outlet; it was my art form. I did it because it allowed me to express myself fully; it had nothing to do with the holiday. They slowly came around and saw that I was passionate about it and had fun while doing it. I slowly started involving them in the process by adding traditional Mexican aspects to my costumes and allowing them to see part of our culture in my art. They are so proud of it now that they show it off to family across the country and Mexico
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about what you do?
I am known for my Cosplaying which is a form of expressive art that involves people dressing up as characters from movies, cartoons, animes, books, etc. From my cosplaying, I have expanded into having a small shop that sells buttons, stickers, keychains, and earrings that include my own art.
What I am most proud of is being able to have fun and express myself and people liking me for doing it. I started cosplaying because I always felt this part of me that had to express itself. I always saw household object and was like, “this would make a great handle for a lightsaber,” and it wasn’t until I mixed the two up, which was making things from household objects, and making costumes, that I found my passion.
I feel what sets me apart from others is that I try to preach as much as possible that you don’t have to spend a lot of money on something if you expand yourself to think more creatively.
I’ve made builds that look like they’re $300 out of things that cost me $20. My best example of that is when I dressed up as the Iron Spider, which is a version of spiderman seen in the avengers, and I made his arms out of back scratchers, pool noodles, and lemon squeezers.
Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
My favorite childhood memory was watching Indiana Jones and Star Wars with my family. My parents were immigrants in this country, and seeing these movies felt so American to me. They were the epitome of the American dream to our family. So now that I’m a Star Wars-obsessed adult, it means so much to me that I had these core memories as a child with my family. We bonded over the experiences and struggles of these characters, and a lot of the times we were even learning English terminology from these movies.
Contact Info:
- Website: darthdrea.square.site
- Instagram: @darthdrea
- Other: TikTok @darthdrea
