We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Taneva M. a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Taneva , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s talk about social media – do you manage your own or do you have someone or a company that handles it for you? Why did you make the choice you did?
As cosplayers, most of us manage our own social medias. Sometimes it does get difficult for me when I should post because the algorithm for the social medias are sometimes hard to track. Choosing certain social media platform to showcase my cosplays has been trial and error because each are different. Figuring out which one can give you the most benefits and opportunities does take time but it has been a fun journey to figure it out. Even though it does get a bit challenging because I am also have a full time job as a teacher so sometimes posting does get set back sometimes. One thing that has helped me, especially with instagram, is the scheduled posting. That has been a life saver! Instead of always forgetting to post, I would use the scheduled posting, upload the content I want to post and choose what time and date to post it. That has been a Game Changer!
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?
Well to start off, my name is Taneva but I go by Tee. I am a non-binary Black cosplayer and Blerd (black nerd) I have been cosplaying since 2019 and have not looked back. It is a great way to get my creativity out and helps me showcase the creative thought I have and also gives me the creative freedom I love so much. I provide cosplay tips and tricks when asked how I do something and I also provide and accepting cosplay opportunity by showcase what I can do and also inspiring those to go out there as well and cosplay whoever they want despite the color of our skin. I am most proud of others coming to me and telling me how much of and influence I have been to them especially with cosplaying outside of a box that black cosplayers are always subjected to be put in. Just go out there and cosplay your favorite character, yeah they may not look like you but they are your favorite and you should not be limited to doing something you love.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
When I first started out cosplaying, I almost quit in the first year because of the backlash and racist comments on some of my cosplay. One particular incident is when I cosplayed Coraline from the stop motion picture and was called a slur version of that character, that really hurt and I expressed that on social media. Then the positive response I received from so many, made me keep going because even though there are a couple of hateful comments, there is always a team behind you that will help motivate you and bring you back up! So never give up because haters will hate but you will always have support.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
A lesson I had to unlearn was that I could only cosplay certain characters because of my skin color. That was such a ridiculous thought I had for years! You can. Cosplay whoever you want, just make sure you are respectful to the character and the origin of the character . Don’t let that mindset hold you back from cosplaying a character you admire despite them not looking like you! Go out there and cosplay them, you never know who you might inspire.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://beacons.ai/ItsDefinitelyTee?fbclid=PAAaavrqXAwzqBMB0u4KgUuK69cTbHSflfhHgvak144qphFZX7s4iBDU_wiyA_aem_ARq7YWVS4O54BlGilpwKKpa35RPYikBs0SGJ0z_uGJM5JQvOm9XZgAvnFa0bMJ8Bp84
- Instagram: Itsdefinitelytee
- Twitter: Itsdefinitelyt
- Youtube: Itsdefinitelytee
- TikTok: Itsdefinitelytee
Image Credits
I took and edit my own pictures that were submitted