When she was younger, Danielle used to make Halloween costumes with her Dad due to ones from the store never looking good on her. With cosplaying being a part of her life for 10 years now, this whole aspect of creating costumes never left her. In looking at her portfolio of work, Danielle seems to take from all aspects of geek media. Kairi's look from Kingdom Hearts 2 was her first official cosplay, and many video games have provided lots of inspiration such as a Female version of Squall Leonhart from Final Fantasy 8 and a rave outfit based off of Miles "Tails" Prower from the Sonic series. She also claims her brother being a bigger nerd than her, which I guess makes sense if he's in a top tier raiding guild in WoW.
Throughout this interview, you'll know of Danielle's story with being introduced to WoW when she was younger. How sharing an account with her brother led to getting her own, and even falling in love with someone she's still with today (engaged to be more precise!). League of Legends came at a much later date and she plays that at a much more casual level. She goes into detail with the Death Knight's construction, how she got into lingerie versions of League characters, and of course what's next for her. There's also some pretty good advice she gives for those feeling scared of getting into cosplay and dealing with the mean comments some people can tend to leave on pages. I really hope you guys enjoy this, I loved reading the answers and getting an insight into Danielle's exciting life!
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What
got you into cosplay and how long have you been doing it?
I used to make Halloween costumes with my dad
when I was younger since store-bought costumes never looked good enough for me.
And, I was right even as a kid, handmade costumes look so much better than
mass-produced ones! I've been officially cosplaying at conventions for 10 years
now but I've been building costumes since my earliest memories in life.
Which
cosplay was the first you ever created?
Technically I made Charizard with my dad in
second grade, but after learning about cosplay and anime conventions the first
one I did officially was Kairi from Kingdom Hearts 2.
Thinking
back to the last convention you were at, did you enjoy it?
That would be Blizzcon and you'd have to be crazy
not to enjoy it. I was literally bleeding from wearing my costume for too long
and I still had a blast.
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| Photo by Gerry Francisco |
What
cosplay(s) did you bring to this convention?
I brought my tier 10 Death Knight from World of
Warcraft.
What
is your favorite cosplay you’ve made so far?
Probably Arcade Hecarim since it makes everyone
around it happy.
What
got you into being a geek?
Growing up I was really mad that I was a girl, I
always wanted to do boy things so I spent most of my childhood playing my
younger brothers game systems and using his Dragon Ball Z action figures while
ignoring the dolls and stuff bought for me. I was really into collecting at a
young age, I always had to have a pack of pokemon cards whenever I got my hands
on one. Pokemon and Dragonball eventually introduced me into other animes.
Do
you have any other members of your family who are into what you enjoy? Or are
you at present the only “geek” in the family?
My brother is currently a paladin tank in a
top-end World of Warcraft guild so he's probably a bigger geek than I am.
Looking
through your outfits, it’s definitely apparent that you have a special love for
League of Legends and World of Warcraft. What got you into playing those games?
I wasn't allowed to have my own WoW account as a
kid, girls had neopets according to my parents so they only paid for my
brothers subscription. We also had to share a computer. Don't get me wrong, I
love Neopets! But I always wanted a WoW account like my little brother. When I
got older, I got my own and I started raiding with the person I would
eventually be engaged to. We even went on to raid top 100 US for a bit. League
of Legends came a lot later, and it's something I am much more casual with.
As
you mentioned above, you were working over at the Corsair booth wearing an
incredible Death Knight cosplay! What was it like creating the full outfit? Why
did you choose that class in particular? The weapon you made is absolutely
insane!
Hey thanks! It was terrible making that outfit
haha. There were so many skulls I had to hand sculpt but it is one of my
favorite sets from the game and it wasn't going to make itself! I don't play a
Death Knight I just always admired people hanging out in the main town wearing
that set and I couldn't ever look that cool on my hunter.
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| Photo by Jeremiah Seymour Photography |
You’ve
also experimented in doing lingerie/boudoir style shoots with some of your LoL
cosplays? How did those come about?
The first time I did that I was asked to by one
of my good photographer friends and I liked how it came out so I've been doing
more. The money I make from the prints is also really helpful.
What
actually goes into choosing a League character to cosplay as? I imagine the
design of the character factors in greatly with you favoring it a lot? Do you
have a favorite out of all the ones you’ve done so far?
It's usually an on-impulse decision that I start,
and then have to follow through with because I've already put in the money and
materials. Out of the ones I've done for me I like my Haunted Zyra the most but
as I said Arcade Hecarim is my favorite.
Another
cosplay of yours I love seeing is your Gatomon cosplay from Digimon! That must
have been super comfortable to wear right? How was it working with all the fur?
Working with fur is always really frustrating, it
breaks all my sewing needles and machine needles and clings to everything in my
house. It's super comfy to wear for long hours though.
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| Photo by FirstPersonShooter |
Lately
I’ve been seeing on your page that you’re striving towards making sure the
cosplay community and I would say people online in general feel a bit more
safer in terms with dealing with trolls/bullies etc. What advice would you
give?
If someone is making a real threat, bring
attention to it if you feel like they could actually be a danger. Contact the
conventions you're attending if you feel unsafe ever. If someone is just
trolling you, you can either ignore it, or attempt to put them in their place.
Just keep in mind that the time you spend responding to this person takes away
time spend replying to people that are there to support you that would LOVE to
get a response from you. I had one person recently make dozens of fake accounts
to harass me who didn't get ANY response from me. He was doing this to 30 or so
other cosplay girls as well so I decided to make a post about it, where he
proceeded to threaten my safety after, and got himself ban list of most
conventions I attend and got most of his accounts deleted. When someone takes
it too far it's smart to warn others that might be interacting with that person
but 9/10 times it's more beneficial to ignore and ban.
What
do you think about cosplay as it is now hitting the mainstream?
I think it's awesome! Back in high school I had
one other friend that cosplayed with me. Now, I run INTO friends from high
school that were never into it before just now getting into it at conventions.
I wish I had them back then to nerd out with!
Do
you have any upcoming cosplays for this year that you’re able to share?
I am only sharing info on my Sindragosa cosplay,
the rest of my plans are rewards that Patreon subscribers get to see as a
thanks for the support! The reason Sindy will be public is because while I am
working on her I won't have a lot of content for my public pages since it's a
massive project.
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| Photo by Vander Photography |
Do
you imagine cosplaying being a part of your life within the next 5 years and do
you hope to evolve your skill set?
Definitely. It's been in my life for 10 I can't
see it stopping any time soon. I imagine I will still be doing it well into my
50s and 60s.
What’s
a day in the life of Danielle Beaulieu?
Sleep through the day, wake up at night and
browse oddly specific subreddits until i get the motivation to go work.
Any
upcoming game releases you’re looking forward to?
Kingdom Hearts 3 plsssss and also World of
Warcraft Legion
Do
you have a favorite convention?
Blizzcon! Followed by PAX East.
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| Photo by Martin Wong |
If
you were able to live in one of the zones from World of Warcraft, which one
would you pick and why? For me it’d definitely be the Night Elf starting areas,
I adore the scenery of them!
I would make my house on one
of the floating rocks in (Outlands) Nagrand. Just seems like the obvious
choice! Or maybe in Dalaran since you can't get ganked there.
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| Photo by Carlos G. Photography |
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| Photo by Robbins Studios Photography and Fine Art |
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| Photo by P. Karpey Photography |
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I want to thank Danielle so so much for taking the time to do this interview with me. She's definitely
a stand out cosplayer to me and it's nice to see that she has a passion in creating these incredible cosplays. I'm super excited to meet her at PAX East and hearing that she wants to meet me as well makes me smile :). I've got links to places where Danielle is most active! As she mentioned above, some outfits are kept a secret only to those who are part of her Patreon so if you'd like to help contribute to her work, please feel free to! Also, she just shot her Rule 63 Squall Leonhart from Final Fantasy 8 and if you can't already tell from the pictures, SHE LOOKS BEAUTIFUL! :)https://www.facebook.com/Daniellecosplay
https://www.instagram.com/daniellebaloo
https://www.patreon.com/DanielleCosplay?ty=h
