McKayla and Heidi backstage after the Grand Champion announcement

Cosplay — short for costume play — is the art of creating and wearing character costumes to show appreciation for a fandom, media, or genre. It is performed by a fast-growing, global community, and has exploded in popularity since the COVID pandemic.

While cosplay began in the United States in the 1920s, Japan is responsible for the widespread popularity it has today. The art of costuming started to grow in the late 1990s, with the emergence of more competitions, and venues where people could dress up. Nagoya, Japan made history in 2003, by hosting the first — now the most prestigious — international cosplay contest: The World Cosplay Summit Grand Championships (WCS). This year, the event was held in early August, and 41 countries competed. 

The experience of competing in the WCS has been a dream come true for sisters Heidi and McKayla Russell, and I sat down with them after their return from Japan to get the juicy details of their achievements — winning the Brother award for ‘Outstanding Costume Construction’, and being the first ever U.S. Grand Champions. 

The third, second, and first prize WCS winners — From left to right, Team Brazil: Luis Telles and Kellthy, Team USA: Mckayla and Heidi Russell, and Team France: Thaly and Milou.

Let’s start from the beginning. What got you into Cosplay? When did you jump from doing cosplay to doing competitions? 

Heidi: So back in 2017, our friend invited us down to Comic-Con in Salt Lake City, Utah, and we sort of made our own costumes. At the time, they weren't super great, but it was a lot of fun. We were just blown away by everyone else's costumes, and it was super fun to just walk around the convention in costume. From there, we decided that this was our thing. We were going to keep doing it, and we ended up entering [Comic-Con’s] competition the very next year. It's addicting, you know?

So you pretty much went from cosplaying to competitions within a year, right?

Heidi: Yes, it was pretty insane. It's funny — our mom was like, “Are you sure you want to do this?” And we were like, “Yeah, we're gonna do this. It's gonna get bigger and bigger every year.” And that's kind of what happened.

That’s pretty brave to go from being a regular cosplayer to getting on stage.

Heidi: Honestly, it takes guts to do competitions. Anyone that gets up on a stage, they're brave, you know? [I] respect them. You don't necessarily have to be ‘competitive’ to do a competition. It's just that you're finally taking the next step to show off your work. 

Why compete in the WCS?

Heidi: So it definitely started in 2019. We'd only been competing for two years at that point, and we were like, Okay, this is our goal. We want to do this. So we watched the livestream that year, and we watched Team USA, and they took second place that year. Their members were Joshua Heart Design and Garnet Runestar. Then we went to Anime Banzai in Layton, Utah, later that year, and Garnet was there wearing her costume, and — no joke — I literally almost passed out and was crying at the same time!

Mckayla: My idol!!

Heidi: Yeah, exactly! It was incredible! And we had barely gotten our first win that year! We took third place at Fan X and we were in our competition costumes — we were cosplaying Kingdom Hearts — and Garnet was there in her WCS costume. I remember she told us that our costumes looked clean and good, and I almost passed out again.

So you’ve met a few WCS Team USA members? Because you had to have met Pannon (2014). 

Heidi: Yeah, yeah, we've met Pannon as well.

McKalya: Pannon was actually the judge our very first year competing; but after the competition, she came and found us as we were getting ready to leave the convention and she told us that even though we didn't win anything, she loved our costumes and that we should keep going. So encouraging and inclusive. The inclusiveness of the cosplay community is just so great to see. And just the encouragement to keep going is really big.

What did you do to prepare for the preliminaries?

Heidi: I'm not gonna lie. Probably about a week of all-nighters stacked in there. 

McKayla: Dr. Pepper addiction. 

Costume making or actual planning?

Heidi: Costume making, for sure. 

McKayla: There's a lot of planning that went into it. We've never traveled on airplanes or anything like that with our costumes before. So there was a lot of suitcase measuring and being like, Hey, everything's got to fit in these dimensions. And so that was crazy and new for us to experience. Making the costumes themselves, like Heidi said, was a ton of all-nighters and definitely lack of sleep. There was definitely a good, long period of time where I was going to work in the morning on four hours of sleep.

Heidi Russell cosplays Hortensia from Fire Emblem Engage

Did you think you’d win the preliminaries?

Heidi: We hoped to win. We definitely hoped to win. There were a few other teams where I was like, If it's not us, it's definitely them, you know? I remember turning to Mikayla and saying something like, “I don't know what I'm gonna do mentally if I don't win.” But if we hadn’t won this one, we would have just tried again, probably the next year.

You were backstage when it was announced. What was your reaction hearing you had won? What were the reactions from the people around you?

Heidi: Honestly, I think Mckalya and I were just squeezing each other's hands, which is what we did at WCS, as well. If you want the real reaction, it came from our sister, Myciah. She's more animated than us.

Mckayla: She's a lot more animated. When our sisters heard that we won, they hugged each other and jumped in a circle. It was really sweet! We heard our dad almost fainted when they announced the winner, even though our parents were at home.

How did you prepare for going to Nagoya? 

McKayla: Bought all the fans and cooling stuff.

Heidi: It's hot and humid in Japan. We knew it was gonna be humid and hot, and we knew that we had to wear costumes at two other events, so we were planning costumes that were hopefully lighter-weight than our competition costume. 

We had eight suitcases to check!

Mckayla: Six of the eight bags at least were just for WCS — like the actual competition part — and then one of them was full of gifts for the cultural exchange. So that's another suitcase. And then I think that the last one …

Heidi: Was for, like, clothes and stuff to survive on. Yeah.

Did you have any mentors or people who reached out to you? Were there any WCS Alum?

Mckayla: Yeah, there were quite a few past USA representatives that reached out to us ... mostly just congratulations and encouragement … like, “If you ever need anything or need to know about past experiences and what to prepare for, we're here for you. Feel free to reach out.”

Heidi: And [they] warned us about the heat.

It looked like you had a large group with you on your trip. Who went with you and what roles did they play in making the event go well?

Heidi: So there's four of us sisters that went, and then our uncle and his two kids went, and our mom's friend also went with us — so there were eight of us. We had a good team. We definitely owe a lot to our sister Myciah for being our backstage supporter/handler.

McKayla: And [our sister] Brianna.

Heidi: Good handlers are the difference between life and death. I don't even think we could put on our costumes without an extra hand.

Mckayla: And Amber, she was the Team USA manager. She helped us a lot, too, and she's awesome. We love her.

How about being on stage and performing? Did everything go well?

Heidi: I was a little nervous going into it because during dress rehearsal, my wig actually fell off.

McKayla: And your halo.

Heidi: I was nervous that my wig would fall off and I was like, oh, I can't have this happen during the actual competition. So we secured my wig down as hard as we could. We used bobby pins and we had an extra wig grip that we shoved up under there too. Everything went off without a hitch, so we were really grateful. Our [act had a] catapult that launched when it was supposed to ... None of our costumes had any malfunctions.

McKayla Russell cosplays as Alcryst from Fire Emblem Engage

What were your thoughts on winning the Brother award?

Heidi: You had to be nominated for the Brother award. It's not just a surprise announcement. Team Germany, who were next to us, knew that we had been nominated and they were like, “We're wishing you the best of luck.” I really wanted the Brother award. It's not just the bragging rights. It’s because the Brother award represents the best costume cosplay and costume construction, and that's something that we take deep pride in.

McKayla: Yeah, we consider ourselves to be better at the construction part than the acting part.

Finally, the big moment: we were all waiting for the competition results, and then they announced Team USA’s big win. What was that like?

Mckayla: There's just so much relief — probably [from the] tension that I'd been building up — all the hopes through the past year. So when it was announced, it was all released, and I literally just feel like I melted on stage.

Heidi: I remember, before they announced the first, second, and third, that they showed the costume construction, which is 50% of your score. And we were in first place already, which felt so unreal. With WCS, the stage performance can make or break. And I remember listening to third place, and then second place was France, who was right behind us in second place for costume judging and I was like, It could be us. I was squeezing Mckayla’s hand for all I was worth, and I was like, I really just want it to be us, you know? Then they said USA after stalling for so long.

How does it feel to be the first Team USA to win WCS?

Heidi: That's what's insane to me — that Team USA has been participating for 20-ish years or so and never won. We were the ones that were able to bring home the first Grand Champion win!

Mckayla: So yeah, I still have a hard time believing that. There's so many amazing cosplayers all over the U.S. so like, I don't know, that’s still so weird for me.

Your family was there to watch you win on stage. What was their reaction to your win?

McKalya: So our ‘parent’ [a joke about Famoré founder Brint Fanizza being their dad] actually recorded their reaction. They were recording the team screaming while they were watching it and they just, you know, cheered really loud. They were like, “Oh my gosh, you did it!”

Heidi: And then when we found our uncle who came to the event with us…

McKayla: He lost his voice at the end. He couldn't talk.

Heidi: Lots of cheering, for sure.

What about you, Myciah? You were in the crowd, right? 

Myciah: I was backstage with a lot of the Nagoya University students that helped the competition and with the people who were previously on stage. [I was with] Amber, the USA manager, and I was actually holding her hand until they announced the USA [win] and I just screamed so loud! Everybody screamed so loud … It was really a unique experience, and Amber was crying.

Members of the 41 competing contestants pose in front of Osu Kannon Buddhist Temple in Nagoya

Winning WCS means returning to Japan next year to hand over the crown; but what else is in the future? Holiday Matsuri? The Alumni Program?

Heidi: So our next cosplay competition that we’re trying for is — we’ll be staying local — we’re going to try for FanX. But as far as our next international competition, we’re going to try for ECG which is Extreme Cosplay Gathering. The qualifier is at Holiday Matsuri in Florida, and then if we qualify there, we’ll be going to Paris, France, which we’re really excited to try. 

What’s something that you love about the cosplay community?

Heidi: The crazy thing about cosplay competitions in general is that everyone's just there to support each other. Like, winning is great and all, but everyone there is a winner, you know? We're all there to support each other, and we're not trying to sabotage each other. We brought what we call our ‘fix-it-up’ [] box — we just brought every kind of glue and sewing mechanism that we could think of — and anyone that needed something, we were offering it. You need super glue? We have super glue. You need a needle? Here's a needle. You need scissors? Take your pick. 

What advice would you give someone who is just starting in cosplay and what would you tell someone who may be interested in getting into competitions?

Heidi: Definitely don’t give up. Your first costume — unless you're already an expert seamstress or theater major or something like that — isn’t going to look very good, but keep working at it. Get your resources, look on YouTube. You’ll get better the more you practice.

Mckayla: Also, be proud of the progress that you make. Because if you're comparing your first costume to someone else's eighth, that’s really not a fair comparison. Just be proud of the steps you take and the progress you make along the way. 

Heidi: Take pictures! You’ll see yourself improve in the long run and you’ll want proof you did it.

You can follow the Russell sisters on social media at:

Ashleigh Malin is a cosplayer, historian, and folklorist who enjoys living her best life.