We recently connected with Tine Riis and have shared our conversation below.

Tine, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

When I started out, I did not earn enough to make a living. This was mostly because I couldn’t enough jobs/gigs to make it go around, and in retrospect I hadn’t planned out everything I needed. It was a very “yolo”/”heat of the moment”-decision to quit my day job.

My biggest problem at the time was convincing potential partners that cosplay was worth the investment – cosplay wasn’t all that big (at least commercially) in Norway in 2014. Another retrospective insight is that I didn’t really understand my market or even my product. What I mean by that is that I focused heavily on both advertising partnerships and cosplay conventions, while my main business now is teaching workshops on crafting, social media, etc. I wasn’t pitching to the right “customers”, and the ones I was pitching to didn’t understand enough of what cosplay was or how it differed from e.g. gaming and other influencers. Once I grew my business, and cosplay become more popular, it also became easier to make deals with the same advertising partners I had struggled with in the early years.

My biggest strength through the problematic early years was keeping a positive mindset and keeping my spirits up. Slowly, but surely I built my customer/partner base, and I transitioned from a “one woman operation” to an agency with several signed talents to offer even more services. Today Tinerific Agency has nine signed talents, including myself, collaborating with partners and customers both in Norway and abroad.

Tine, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a norwegian girl who has cosplayed since 2009.

My first encounter with cosplay was at Anime Expo 2009 in LA. I attended the event while visiting my ex who lived in the area. I was already a long-time anime fan, and knew that cosplay existed, but I had experienced it first-hand. I was completely overwhelmed by both the craftmanship and the love for all these characters – a love that I shared, but that I hadn’t been able to share with anyone in Norway. More than the craftmanship, I was blown away by the fact that there was a community for this; as well as the sheer size of it – the latter being understandable, as the amount of attendees was roughly the same as the entire population of my home town in Norway.
After experiencing this, I knew this was something I wanted to be a part of. I discovered that there was a community for cosplay in Norway, and I started attending events and learning the craft. I also created social media profiles to find friends who shared my passion, and when my follower numbers reached several hundred thousand, I saw a possibility to turn this passion into a job.

Now I am the CEO of my own agency – Tinerific Agency. We have nine signed talents, most with over ten years of experience each, offering a plethora of services. Our main focus is sharing our passion for cosplay and crafting, and growing the cosplay community.
The main reason I started an agency for cosplayers was that I often saw – and experienced myself – that many companies and other actors would exploit cosplayers financially. Most often by grossly underpaying them for their services, or by making them work grueling hours, or by claiming ownership of their content. I wanted to use my experience to change the way both cosplayers and commercial partners viewed the value of cosplay. Because of this, Tinerific Agency offers to help even unsigned artists negotiate contracts with partners, so that they may be what their contribution is worth.

Outside of this, Tinerific Agency and its talents work on various advertising collaborations, attend cosplay conventions as guests, and teach various workshops at schools, youth clubs, museums, and more all over Scandinavia.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My main goal is to share my passion and spread the joy of cosplay! I want to spread the word so that the cosplay community as a whole can grow, because the community is so inclusive to all kinds of people – including people who may struggle to fit in in other communities. Hand-in-hand with this is my love of the crafting aspect of cosplay. I love bringing my favorite characters to life through fabric, fibreglass, and worbla. Every part of the process, from planning, designing/transfering the design from cartoon or 3D model to the human body, crafting, styling wigs, and designing the makeup – it truly is the ultimate creative hobby, and it continues to bring me joy.
Being able to make a living from my passion, and hopefully inspiring others, drives me to continuously improve.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

Being norwegian, my experience with government sponsorship of art is probably pretty different from the experience one might have in the USA. I believe it is very important that the government stimulates the artistic community economically with grants, stipends, etc – and this is the way it works in Norway (and most of Scandinavia). The pandemic highlighted the importance of art and entertainment, and how much it impacts peoples lives when it’s unavailable. Demanding that all art be instantly commercially viable/ economically self-sufficient stifles a huge amount of potential artists who simply can’t afford to take the chance, and society is poorer for it.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.tinemarie.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tinechan
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CosplayerTineMarieRiis/
• Linkedin: https://no.linkedin.com/in/tine-marie-riis-7537238a

Image Credits
Princess Mononoke by Sophie Riis (Mask on top of head) Princess Zelda photo by Sophie Riis (Elf in the water) Valkyrie Leona Photo by Jacob.cr2 (Girl with sword and shield) Rest are private photos / selfies.