This is probably gonna be one of those https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧵" title="Thread" aria-label="Emoji: Thread"> where I sound like an old lady in the cosplay space, but I don& #39;t even care. Sometimes I really worry about what younger people in this community are exposed to. When I was in my teens and early 20s I was still struggling with self image.

I didn& #39;t need the extra help of being thrust into a community with a huge lookalike culture problem, Facetune used on even casual selfies. I see people disappointed they can& #39;t seem to recreate these looks with makeup and I don& #39;t think they realize

-just how manipulated a lot of these images are. And of course, there is some beautiful artistry when it comes to shape shifting and turning into characters, but it& #39;s when we aren& #39;t honest that the lines get blurred.

I also think a year without cons and the cosplay community being experienced purely online has made some of those lines even blurrier. I hope the return of cons helps.

This problem only seems to be getting worse, so I just want to remind anyone who needs to hear it. That amazing cosplay will still be amazing if you look like yourself in a costume.

Disclaimer: everything I& #39;m talking here is the doppelgänger/ lookalike scene. The pressure to look like an actor. Shapeshifting makeup is cool as hell, I don& #39;t mean y& #39;all.

And I just want to tack on that if you have a problem with the contents of this thread, you might be part of the problem.