The truth about Cosplay

I became a cosplayer because I always loved playing dress-up since my very first halloween night as a child.

To this day, I still cosplay for this very reason.
I love manipulating all kinds of raw material into new artistic creations, I've done it for ages. Cosplay gives me a golden opportunity to have fun working with new materials and new techniques everyday, while provinding me with new awesom...(tharr be more)e costumes I can wear around with other people who share the same interest. And as a bonus, my efforts are being rewarded with contratulations and recognition.

Yes, I know, I'm still a little kid playing "cops and robbers", but taken to the next level, with as much pride and joy as any little kid can put in that curvy old broken branch they imagine being the sacred sword Excalibur...

Cosplay is, and should always stay, a hobby. Hobbies are nothing more than a side-occupation done for fun, and should never put your dayly life or health at stake.

As such, it also aims at having a good time with other people rather than looking down upon other's costume in a discriminating way. If you don't gain any fun out of cosplaying, in ANY given time, or if you can't think "cosplay" outside of in a competitive manner, then maybe, just maybe, it's time for you to take a break...
It is okay to keep a critical eye as artists toward other artists, just like we do for all other types of art, but it should never come to a point where said arts are practiced in the sole purpose of impressing and lowering others, and that's not only true about cosplay.

Cosplay is dressing as and roleplaying as a character for fun (without becoming a danger for society, of course, games should always be played safe), just like LARPs. You can't get any fun out of dressing up and acting as a character you hate, so don't. I don't know many people who'd create a LARP or DnD character they'd hate to play as, so why would anyone do so with cosplay?

Cosplay is supposed to be done primarely for your own enjoyment. If, for some reason, you can't find enjoyment in it, you know there is something wrong. If some people, instead of just being happy that you share the same interest as them and sharing their thoughts with you in a friendly manner, look down upon you for whatever reason concerning your costume and it makes you feel bad or ashamed, they are the ones taking the wrong path, not you. Avoid these people.

I am saying this because I, for one, know how expansive of a hobby this can be, and I know how unhealthy it can easily become to spend that precious money on the wrong things for the wrong reasons.