We were lucky to catch up with Sophia Yeh recently and have shared our conversation below.

Sophia, 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?

I feel very fortunate that I’m able to have a creative career and be able to do it full-time. It wasn’t always this way though. Before I got to where I am, I struggled. I was working a few jobs at a time to even make this viable. In the beginning, I was working in food and retail—two of the hardest jobs in terms of mental and emotional fortitude. Customers can be quite cruel and often you are looked down on for your position. At the height of craziness, I would work my retail job at the beginning of the week (mon-wed) and any free time I got I would do my cosplay work which included me going over to my partner’s house (wed night- Friday morning) and he lived 45-50 minutes away so it was a lot of driving. Then Friday evening into Sunday, I would work my server job. It was exhausting but I wanted to make it work. My cosplay and SFX work is important to me and in order to make it viable, I made sacrifices to be able to afford to do those things on the side. It paid off since I’m currently doing this full time. Looking back, I don’t think there was anything I could have done to sped up the process—sometimes I think it’s easy to want to just put all your energy into the one thing and abandon your other responsibilities. Unfortunately, I had bills to pay and this was the only way that I could have made it work. I didn’t have a name for myself yet so the income I got from my early work was not enough to live off of solely.

Sophia, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

This all started out as a hobby. I grew up being a nerd and after attending a few anime conventions in my early teenage years, I was hooked. It wasn’t until my early 20’s before I was determined to create my own costumes. I’ve always had an art background so this was nothing new—just a different medium and skill. I am mostly self taught when it comes to my seamstress and patterning work (hours of searching online on top of YouTube videos with help from a friend and a couple fashion courses from college). From there most people who have heard of me were local—the community was smaller and everyone knew each other.

In the last 4 years was when I really got into the prop work and SFX stuff. It went hand in hand with the costuming so the transition was smooth. I mostly dabble in resin cosplay accessories, specifically horns. I wanted some horns as part of my renaissance faire costume and asked my Partner, Kyle, to make me some. He is an SFX and Prop artist. The story goes that he tells me “no, you should make it yourself. You might enjoy it.” And he was right. From then on, I never looked back.

I think what sets me apart from others is my attention to detail and where I draw inspiration from. I’m very meticulous about my work and I have an aesthetic for all things magical, things in nature, and all things dark. I draw inspiration from the things around me—anything as simple as a Starbucks Cup (I’m a huge collector) to the stars in the night sky. I think my sense of wonder and romanticism come through in my work.

One thing that I am most proud of is that I am true to myself when it comes to my art. While I do follow the occasional trend, I tend to do my best work when it’s something that I want to do. When I get to create something from my heart, I think it really shows in my work…even if that does sound cheesy.

Is there a mission driving your creative journey?

It’s all simple and complicated: my love of creation drives me. At it’s core, that is what really moves and motivates me. There is nothing that compares to the feeling of making something out of nothing. It’s not easy and there are learning curves but when you do it…you feel proud. It’s a great feeling.

In terms of my business, I just want to show the world what I can do. I want to show that I am capable with good ideas. I want to share a bit of myself with everyone. After working a lot of dead end jobs in my life, this is something that I love and I’m not willing to let it go. It’s been a crazy journey so far with lots of tears and smiles with many more to come.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being creative?

To see other people’s face light up when they see your art. When they see something you work so hard on and fall in love. When they tell you that you inspire them as well. It’s a good feeling that I will never tire of. I often think that the world can be a negative place so being able to brighten up someone’s day…I think that’s powerful.

Contact Info:

• Website: Storytellercosplay.com
• Instagram: Instagram.com/storytellercosplay
• Twitter: Twitter.com/storyteller_cos
• Other: My domain is currently tied to my Etsy and I’m in the process of moving a lot of stuff around but my social media is the best way to check out any updates or info.

Image Credits
Cameron Hyatt Solita D Photography