kaybear instagram
photo: Instagram/@kayyybear

Being a cosplayer is a labor of love. It involves intricate, sometimes expensive costumes and heavy criticism. And as a popular Black cosplayer has just shown, if you're a person of color, it gets even worse. 

In a Facebook post, Black cosplayer "KayBear" shared the hateful messages she received after portraying Mavis from "Hotel Transylvania." 

"If you are a person of color cosplayer on the internet, you are no stranger to these types of comments... I personally get comments like these often and it can often be very discouraging. Ive been called a 'nigger, wrong, ugly' and etc just because of my skin color.

It can make you think you’re not good enough, not beautiful enough or not allowed to be a part of this hobby simply because of your skin color. But that’s far from the truth.

I just want to remind cosplayers out there that no matter what hatred or racism that strangers spew at you on the internet, you can cosplay too. And your cosplays are just as amazing. 
Cosplay is for everyone. It doesn’t matter your skin color, your age, body type. None of that matters. All that matters is that you love yourself, express yourself, and keep enjoying what you do for YOU. Not for others. If someone tells you 'This character is not black,' tell them 'They’re black now.'

Also, racism is disgusting and those idiots can go fuck themselves," KayBear said in her post. 

KayBear's post has been shared over 13,000 times, with many coming out to support her.

instagram kayyybear
photo: Instagram/@kayyybear

"I thought it was perfect. Real cosplayer don't see gender or race they see people who took time to dress up as a character their own way! You keep doing amazing work and don't listen to the other voices that are just jealous of your skills," one follower commented on her Facebook post. 

"You really do have some of the best cosplay around. If people are hung up over the color of your skin then they have much deeper issues. Much love to you...please keep being awesome," another user commented on Facebook. 

But sadly, this is just one of many occurrences of racism in the whitewashed cosplay world. 

Although there are characters of all ethnicities, many cosplayers of color are targeted with people insisting they don't fit the "mold" of what the character actually looks like, despite the characters being fictional. 

With her 160,000 Facebook followers and 183,000+ Instagram followers, KayBear stands for an underrepresented community in geek culture.  

kayyybear instagram
photo: Instagram/@kayyybear

KayBear showed her thousands of followers that, despite nerds of all colors loving the cosplay world, they have to try twice as hard to even be accepted. But regardless of the haters, KayBear also encouraged her followers to cosplay for THEMSELVES and not for the approval of others. 

"All that matters is that you love yourself, express yourself, and keep enjoying what you do for YOU," KayBear said in her post. Most of all, people just need to use their damn imagination.