A few years ago, a photo of me was used in the “I saw your girlfriend [insert ugly photo of unrelated person]” style meme. This had an impact on my confidence and I avoided most social settings and photos entirely for a couple years. As I got into Cosplay these have been steadily improving thanks entirely to the wonderful friends and community I’ve been fortunate enough to find.

However, I want to thank@althaeandrea, who encouragingly took photos of all of our motley crew at this MCM London just gone (and let me try out their awesome professional grade camera!). We all are a wide range of ages and Cosplay/Camera experience, and they made everybody feel relaxed and comfortable, and the photos that have come from our shoots truly show their courtesy, passion and care. I like them *all*, with no desire to add any of the filters I would usually add to make my own photos more palatable to me. It was thanks to this boost that I went ahead and took up the professional headshots that my work offered for our email signatures and profiles for my 9-5 admin position today - something I never would’ve done years ago. And I’m happy(ish!) with them too!

Thank you, thank you so much - you’re going to have an amazing and impactful career in this field someday