Join Me on My Cosplay Journey

Welcome to my blog! My name is Kayla, and I started this blog as a way to share more of my cosplay process beyond just my Instagram. Where I can (aka, where I remember) I try to film my process and make videos, but the world of video creation and editing is still very new to me and I often forget. My hope is to make this a habit, but for the moment taking photos is a more natural process for me.

So where to begin? I am 34 years old and married to my high school sweetheart. We are coming up on our 12th wedding anniversary (17th dating) and cosplay together. We both began our cosplaying journey together, but I will go more into depth about that in my blog. KnD_Cosplay, the Instagram account, actually came to be after we started cosplaying when we started our first "big" cosplay build together for PAX East 2023. K stands for myself, Kayla, and D stands for Dustin, my husband. The original intention behind the account was to share both of our cosplay journey, and in some ways it still does, but my husband ended up making his own Instagram account that he uses very rarely. 

I am based in the beautiful state of Oregon, and incredibly lucky to have such a gorgeous state to cosplay in. While the convention scene isn't massive the landscape is amazing for photography. I am a reader, a gamer, a fiber artist, an anime lover, and an overall nerd. I am sucker for romance novels, and read far too many web comics to count. ​

I am a fairly new member of the Pacific Northwest Guild of Cosplayers, and hope to be able to help inspire more cosplayers, share what I have learned, and learn more from others. I have also discovered a love of Cosplay competitions, both to see how my builds fare against other cosplayers, and to challenge myself to go above and beyond my previous work and to see where and how I can improve. I have met so many amazing cosplayers in the past year and hope to continue to grow as a cosplay. 

I do face some challenges in my cosplaying endeavors. I am a neurodivergent cosplayer, having been diagnosed with ADHD in my 30's I often struggle with time management and memory, but most especially time blindness and contacting others. One thing I would love to do is collaborate with other cosplayers, and perhaps one day I will actually remember to reach out and set things up! Beyond this I also struggle with medical issues that can make convention going difficult, though thankfully not impossible. I have a wonderfully supportive husband who helps carry extra gear for me so I always have extra water, snacks, and a stool to sit and cane available. While all this can be challenging at times, cosplaying is so worth it, and I hope to inspire others to join the craft!