Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Katie Simrell. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Katie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

Last year I competed in the League of Legends LCS Cosplay contest. I had participated once before during the pandemic and even placed as a finalist for one of my big armor cosplay builds (Iron Inquisitor Kayle). I didn’t win back in 2020, but I knew I could level up my skills and make something even more impressive for 2023- so I decided to make a glowing & articulated centaur cosplay for my entry. And that’s how I landed on the design of Nightbringer Lillia.

I didn’t even play LoL anymore, and I had never played Lillia as a champ (fake fan lol). But I liked her design and was itching for a challenge. There was a lot to unpack for this costume: how to make it light up, how to make it “walk”, and how to balance a crazy heavy deer prosthetic on my body. She ended up being the cosplay that took the longest and cost me the most money. LEDs aren’t cheap! And thru this crafting process I ran into a lot of technical issues that made me want to give up. Nothing has frustrated me more than this centaur. But she got finished! The legs moved, the lights glowed, the paint was polished. I was so proud of how much work I had put into this cosplay.

A few days before the deadline, I brought the centaur to a local park at 4am to get my photos and videos. Lillia ended up being so heavy and uncomfortable, I could only wear her for about 20 minutes before I felt like passing out. Even so, I got my photos and videos! They turned out SO impressive, I couldn’t even believe how cool she looked (how cool I looked!).

And then the contest results were announced and I… didn’t even place as a finalist. My biggest, most expensive, and most impressive cosplay of my entire career and she didn’t even make it to the finals. I had ended up going backwards instead of forwards. I can’t lie, I was really demotivated and disappointed. That’s the thing about cosplay contests, though. I can put in my absolute best effort but it doesn’t change what OTHER people bring to the table. They just happened to be more skilled than I was. The upside is that social media didn’t care about the craftsmanship behind the centaur, just that she was a big, neat, glowing centaur! And Lillia performed very will across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. At first it felt like all that effort had “gone to waste” but I still made the best costume of my career so far. And I’ve still been able to pick myself back up from the disappointment and continue entering cosplay contest (that I continue to lose haha).

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Hi! I’m simrell, I’m a cosplayer and lewd content creator.

Originally, I went to school and got my degree in Animation and moved out to LA to work in that field. That went well for a while, making background art for animated series. And I even had popular social media pages for my fanart. But once I started posting my cosplay (which USED to be my hobby) I realized that people were way happier to pay to see more of that rather than my drawings of wizards kissing. Before long, the cosplay was paying more than my animation day job! Now fanart is my hobby and cosplay is my job.

My passion projects usually involve armor and oversized props. But I’m probably more well known for the ~spicy~ posts- which are the ones that end up funding my armor cosplays! I’m really lucky to have a group of kind fans to seem to enjoy me for both sides of my cosplay journey.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

Burnout has been in the public consciousness lately- so I think some folks do understand what that means. But it is a constant threat to anyone working creatively.

Once burnout hits, you just CAN’T make anymore. There’s really no way to describe how crushing it feels. Even if I desperately need to keep crafting and glueing and sewing, even if I have deadlines, even if I tell myself over and over again that yes, I do actually LOVE doing this- I just CAN’T. All of the joy from this craft is sucked out of my every pore when I’m in burnout. And it’s not just the sudden lack of love, it’s knowing that being creative is a part of my person. It’s who I am. So when I can’t be creative anymore, there’s an extra layer of self hatred when I keep asking myself what’s wrong with me.

Burnout doesn’t care that this is my job, I HAVE to keep making or I can’t pay my bills.

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

STOP supporting and relying on AI. It’s killing artists.

We can’t post on any platform anymore without fearing that our work or our FACES are going to be taken by some unfeeling computer and churn our passion into a smooth alien output by someone who doesn’t care about us or doesn’t know we exist. AI cannot function without stealing from artists- stealing our love and taking work away from us.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @katiesimrell
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/simrell
• Other: onlyfans.com/simrell

  (this is of course NSFW, only share if you want haha)

Image Credits

photos taken by my spouse