For those of you who aren’t familiar with this beloved internet muse yet, prepare to be amazed! Kiera Please is a popular cosplayer and musician based in Los Angeles. She is known for channeling all your favorite characters from across the pop-culture universe with her own effortlessly cool style. She’s morphed into Daria, Coraline, Hermione Granger, Mufasa, Cruella de Vil, Beyoncé, and all the leading ladies of Game of Thrones—if you name it, she’s probably done it.
All of my favorite nostalgic characters from the ’90s and 2000s, like Princess Kida from Atlantis, or Penny Proud from The Proud Family. Those are the characters from my childhood and made the biggest impression on me. Those are always going to be my greatest inspirations when I’m making a costume.You’re probably the most visible Black female cosplayer on the internet right now.
I never put that pressure on myself. I just go with what I feel like the character is to me. If the character I’m portraying is sexy, or just casual, that’s what I’m channeling. When I choose a character, I wanna do it because I like it. If I don’t feel comfortable or excited about it, then it’s not the look for me.Speaking of Halloween, there’s a lot of tension surrounding cultural appropriation and costuming. You’ve portrayed a range of characters across all genres of pop culture.
I’ve definitely faced some challenges as a Black woman doing this. I have received some hate for doing certain characters. People who told me “Oh, that character doesn’t look like you” or “You can’t do that character because you’re black.” People telling me that I don’t have the right body size to play a character, I’m too curvy and this and that. Just a lot of people nitpicking you, trying to make you doubt yourself. I don’t pay attention to it. I’m just doing this for fun.