We were lucky to catch up with Britni McNeill recently and have shared our conversation below.

Britni, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I actually grew up very shy! I had such a hard time talking to others and really coming out of my shell. By the time I reached freshman year of high school, my mom actually was looking through class sign ups with me and she saw a Theatre class and immediately told me I should try it. It definitely took convincing, as I barely wanted to talk to people in normal conversations let alone stand in front of people and act! However, I’m so glad I tried it because I instantly fell in love. It brought me out of my shell, it brought me new friendships and a passion I never knew I had! From that moment on I knew acting was what I wanted to do forever!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

My name is Britni, I am an actress and a Cosplayer! My handle on social media is britnithecat and I have spent many years both cosplaying, building a social media platform, and pursuing my dream of acting.

I attended the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and received a bachelors of Fine Arts in Theatre. I have studied many aspects of the art from stage and film acting to stagecraft, costuming, stage makeup and wig styling! The great part about attending college for art while being an artist as a hobby is being able to learn so many new concepts and ideas to help polish and build your hobby into something you never knew you could do!

As a cosplayer, I use a lot of what I learned in college and through self teaching. I do a lot of my own wig styling and makeup. I will take and edit my own photos on occasion. I make various props and while I do know how to sew and construct garments, I tend to prefer supporting more talented creators and commissioning them for costumes! I believe it’s just as important to support those trying to make a living off of creating costumes for cosplayers as it is to create your own. Both have their own advantages and I just personally love to support Etsy businesses for their art as well! I strive to completely encompass whatever character I choose to dress up as and I put a lot of focus into fine details like character makeup, hair and props!

I am passionate about being an actress as well as a Cosplayer and content creator. It is something I try every day to continue to build until one day I can make it a full time job, as we all strive to do what we absolutely love for a living.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Give new creatives a chance! In my experience “who you know” has become such an issue with both the creative field, as well as any other field of work out there in the world! There are many people out there who have such amazing skills and training and are trying to find a chance to make it. someone to reach out and give them the opportunity to really get their start in what they love. I think it’s very important to reach out of the comfort zone of friends and who you know and start giving others a chance to really prove themselves! This also falls under taking a risk as both parties have to really be willing to put themselves out there. I do believe that the world would find there are a lot more people passionate about art if given the chance to show it!

How did you build your audience on social media?

So originally, I started my social media platform with my best friend and cosplay partner! We created SoniCat Cosplay together and we really built an amazing platform! We reached almost 10k followers when the platform we chose started to hide a lot of what we posted and we began to struggle with people actually seeing our content. Eventually we stepped away and decided to focus on our own pages, create content that neither of us felt forced to do and pick platforms we were comfortable with. I turned to Instagram and even now the challenge is to remain seen and continually get views of my content! However lately I have had the fortune of being able to produce regular content and it seems to be doing well so far! I still have a long way to go but I am enjoying the journey which is most important for me! My friend and I occasionally still post on our joint cosplay page, but for the most part we have enjoyed finding our own paths in social media!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: www.instagram.com/britnithecat
• Facebook: SoniCat Cosplay
• Other: tiktok: @britnithecat www.twitch.tv/britni_the_cat

Image Credits
Image credits belong to Alex Lahman Fat Chance The Movie Rachel Barrow