Hello there! Victoria here, known as Scruffy Rebel to some. I am absolutely thrilled and honored to be involved in the Year of the Fangirl campaign. It’s going to be incredible! I’ve had the joy of getting to know Ashley through being her! Well, not her of course, but through dressing up as Ahsoka Tano! I think our first interaction was at Wondercon a few years ago after the Clone Wars panel. I had just finished making Ahsoka’s Season 3 outfit, eager to see what Dave Filoni thought of it, and there was Ashley! It’s seldom that cosplayers ever meet the actors/voice actors of the characters they’re dressing up as, but that hasn’t been the case with Ashley. It’s been really wonderful to see how accessible Ashley makes herself, how much she interacts with everyone who loves Star Wars and Ahsoka, and encouraging fangirls to be proud of, and flaunt, their geekiness. It is really something special to dress up as a character voiced by such a remarkable geek, and a fellow Disney and Star Wars fan to boot!
I’ve always been attracted to the geek side of life, and it pretty much consumes every facet of my adult life. As a kid, I was obsessed with Disney, Batman and cartoons. So growing up, I spent most of my time daydreaming of the love of my life, Dick Grayson, trying to turn into a Sailor Scout, and dressing up like Belle and reenacting the opening song of Beauty and the Beast in my bedroom. I come from a loving and supportive family. My parents knew early on that I marched to the beat of my own drum, and always encouraged my passions, no matter how non-mainstream they were. My Mom appreciates the skill and artistry in making costumes, and my little nieces love seeing pics of me cosplaying Tinker Bell (or rather, they love seeing pictures of Tinker Bell, they don’t realize it’s me, shh!). I loved watching anime with my Dad, and we shared the love of Star Wars – my Mom told me it was the only movie he stood in line for! He always reminded me of Han Solo, and after his death, our mutual love of Star Wars is one of my most treasured connections. I am very much the Jaina to his Han.
I’m intensely passionate for my fandoms, but what geek isn’t? Geeks are probably the most passionate community of individuals there is. I mainly express my geekiness and fandom appreciation through cosplaying and geek fashion. I’ve been cosplaying for, yikes, almost 14 years! Bringing a character to life through research and hard work is a great feeling and incredibly fulfilling. While a lot of people just enjoy cosplaying for the simple pleasure of dressing up, creating accurate representations of characters is what really drives me. I literally want to look like Ahsoka Tano just walked out of your TV, or Supergirl burst from the pages of a comic book. Cosplaying is not only a wonderfully creative outlet, it’s also a fantastic way to socialize, interact, and connect with like-minded individuals who love what you love. As I mentioned earlier, it was cosplay that connected me with Dave Filoni and Ashley at first, how cool is that! I really love seeing how popular cosplay has become over the years, as there are far more people that partake in the hobby now than when I started back in high school.
Geek chic fashion has always been a love of mine, but I really started to focus on it when Her Universe launched! Her Universe has changed everything in the geek fashion industry by boldly making it clear that there IS a market for stylish female geek clothing and accessories. Since the launch of Her Universe, I’ve seen a noticeable uptick in the amount of geek girl fashion being released by other companies. My friend Lindz and I realized there was a gap in the geek blogs out there, noting that while some might post about stylish geek items on occasion, none of them purely focused on female geek style and fashion. So, we created Set To Stunning, and launched it on May 4, of course 😉 We post about geek chic fashion and accessories, and provide DIYs and even Style Looks for different ways you can put together your own geek ensemble! I LOVE working on this blog, and the last year has been a great period for geek fashion, and this year is proving to be even greater! I believe that it has, quite literally, never been a better time to be a geek than now. Especially for girls! I believe we’re at the start of, not just the year of the fangirl, but the decade!
I know it’s not outside the realm of possibility that the divide of “what boys should like” and “what girls should like” will not be so archaic or sexist in the near future. That a girl loving Star Wars or reading comics wont raise eyebrows or provoke teasing from boys. We are in the midst of change, and for fangirls it’s only change for the better. The fangirl community is overwhelming in its variety and its volume. We are here, we are everywhere. United through our differences because underneath it all, we’re all the same – we are fangirls! And we are awesome. I am so excited and looking forward to sharing, supporting, and promoting all kinds of fangirls this year, thanks to Her Universe’s Year of the Fangirl.