Everyone wants to be someone else.
Imagine having a hobby where you can be that someone. According to Oxford Dictionary, cosplay means “the practice of dressing up as a character from a movie, book, or video game.” Claire Kobes attended UT Martin as an Animal Science major with a concentration in Veterinarian Technologies and graduated in May of 2024. She currently works as a veterinary technician and passed her national licensing exam for vet technicians.
She graduated from high school at 16 because of dual enrollment classes and began her university journey at UT Knoxville in the fall of 2020 during COVID-19. Because of the isolation that COVID brought, she felt that she needed a change and switched to UT Martin. “Martin is about one out of 50 programs in the country that has a four-year program for Veterinarian Technologies to get a Bachelor’s degree and it’s board certified,” said Kobes. Not only did Martin shape who she would become academically, but also as a person.
She joined the Japanese Anime Research Society (JARS) on campus as well as the Gamer Hawks. She began to cosplay because of CoMeek Con, which was hosted by the Paul Meek Library, JARS and a few other organizations on campus. Her first cosplay was Ochako Uraraka from My Hero Academia, which she wore to the first CoMeek Con hosted in 2022.
From then on, she knew that she wanted to further pursue cosplay as an actual hobby, and she began making improvements to the first cosplay she made. In addition to improving her first cosplay, she began dressing up from different fandoms and media. When asked if she makes her own cosplays she talks about her improvement with wigs, eva foam and printers. “All of that has been shaped from that little club’s anime convention,” she said.
Kobes says that she can’t sew very well but makes her props, styles wigs and does her makeup. She promotes upcycling things from Goodwill with similar colors and shapes and makes them into what she needs them to be. “I’m a big fan of closet cosplays and cosplays that are not made from scratch because not everybody has those resources. But, I would say that I do make my own cosplays or I outsource them so that they are handmade by somebody,” Kobes said.
Her favorite cosplay that she has done over the years is her Ochako Uraraka outfit because it not only fits her the best but has also had the most improvements made. “The suit is handmade by a seamstress. I 3-D printed all of the accessories and made the boots from Eva foam. I even styled the wig and have special contacts for that cosplay,” said Kobes.
For some of her other cosplays, she says that she likes being able to be someone else for that night. She especially likes evoking certain reactions out of people with her cosplays and the positive attention and discussions that they bring. “It’s Halloween whenever I feel like it,” she said.
Along with having a cosplay that requires weekends off for conventions, she had to decide between prospective jobs to accommodate it. When she was looking for her job, she had to pick between a clinic that could pay her well versus one that could pay her even better. The downside was that she would have to work from Thursday to Sunday, which would kill her hobby.
She decided to take the one that paid a little less but would accommodate her hobby and free time. Her final message took on a more serious tone as she advised, “Anyone who is in the vet field, have a hobby outside of animals. Empathy burnout is very real and being a cosplayer and being able to run away for the weekend is the best way I deal with it.”
