The Dynamic Cosplay Couple:
Introducing The Son To Cosplay
Since my 6 ½ yr old step-son has watched me “make” things over the years to the point where he has labeled me a “good-maker," we are now beginning to integrate him into this new world of cosplay with us. He actually began with us quite a few years ago (before we even knew the word “cosplay” existed) at our very first Ren Faire together. We all went on “Pirate Day.”
 
And then the second time was at a San Jose Zombie Crawl where we went as the loveable Zombie Family “The Morts” – a family of zombies that “live” in the suburbs and are attempting to fit in and be the perfect suburbia family. An absurd idea we came up with, with help from 3-year-old Li'l Sean (as he wanted to go as a zombie family – so of course we took it a step further).
So he’s dressed up with us several times, but now that we’re a part of the cosplay community (as well as him being older) we decided to take Sean to Big Wow, which was his first official con!
And we were going to go as a Spidey Family -- Iron Spider, Symbiote Spider-Man, & Spider-Girl/Anya Corazon!
The biggest issue we came up against by fully integrating him into our cosplay was TIME. Not only did we have our own costumes to worry about (for Big Wow and then Fanime that following weekend), but now we had to figure out his outfit.
Thankfully our really good friend Amazon Prime came to the rescue and sent us his Iron Spider costume along with Big Sean’s Symbiote Spider-Man suit!
If any of you know me…I always seem to catch a stint of the crafty crazies last minute…which led to me creating Li'l Sean’s Iron Spider arms in about…an hour...right before we left for Big Wow that Saturday.
Thank you spray paint, duct tape, and some mommy ingenuity! Even though the arms had me panicked, it was Li'l Sean’s face that sealed the deal that making them was the right choice. He was so excited to put them on!
Once we arrived at Big Wow, we had a parental moment of doubt.
What if Li'l Sean freaked at all the attention? What if he became fed up with the costume and wanted to take it off? What if he became overwhelmed by the overall experience?
 These were all thoughts running through our heads and we decided the best way to handle them was to lead by example. We would how our son that this was FUN and to remind him of how COOL he looked!
Thank the gods that this tactic worked, for once we were on the premises of the convention center people wanted to take his picture!
At first he was awkward, but once he truly realized that people loved his costume his poses became less “6 year old” and more Iron Spider!
I’m sure he learned quite a bit at Big Wow, but there was one cosplay life lesson that stuck out. After being there for only three hours we reminded Li'l Sean that he should leave his mask on; that way he would be prepared for photo ops.
He then replied, “How about I leave it on, but off my face so I can be ready for someone who wants to take my picture. It’s just hot.”
We were so proud of him! It may not seem like a major thing to celebrate, but for a 6 year old to teach themselves a more efficient way of doing something is a wonder and an amazement!
  
Oddly enough Lil Sean wasn’t the only one to learn a few things:
- Don’t underestimate how awesome your kid(s) can be.
- Comfy cosplay is DEFINITELY the way to go when cosplaying with the lil ones.
- Don’t feel bad about calling in help from the big guns like Amazon Prime – but do add your own creative twists or additions.
We had a blast with Lil Sean, and can’t wait to take him to more conventions! If you’ve been debating on cosplaying as a family, I say – DO IT! You won’t regret it! Geeky Family Powers UNITE!
As for the second day of Big Wow we introduced our updated versions of Ivy & Freeze to the Bay Area! To see our full album of Big Wow go and visit our cosplay page.
You can follow the Dynamic Cosplay Couple on their Facebook page. And, of course, Lani promises to continue writing about their adventures for Fanboy Planet!
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Lani Carissa Bassett
aka SuperLani
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