So I recently read an article about someone who was fat shamed for cosplaying characters she loved. And I would like to point out that it was a very good article about how she felt about people shaming her but she still continues cosplaying (you go!) and her cosplays are nicely done.
And I would like to say as a cosplayer, that it is completely okay to cosplay outside your race/gender/religion/skin tone/etc. I don't know why this is still an issue, we live in the 21st century!!! I don't care if the president himself came up to you and told you you can't do that character because the character is skinny/"white"/an alien for all I care you do what you want. Most anime characters are based off japanese people so in retrospect white people shouldn't be cosplaying either BUT no one cares when white people cosplay asian characters. So black/native american/Indian/whatever you may be should be given the same freedom to cosplay the characters they fell in love with.
When I first heard about cosplaying I was a young person, I can't say how old I was (maybe middle school age). But when I started looking at it, all I saw were these gorgeous Asian cosplayers and people would post the most "horrible, badly done" American ones and I was biased (being Asian) and thought Americans couldn't cosplay. I will fully admit it! Need I remind you I was young at the time and now that I have grown and cosplay myself, I take back my childish thoughts. It's a lot harder to cosplay than I probably thought when I was younger. And the fact that now that I'm older I know those Asian cosplayers' photos were manipulated and made to look cooler (not saying some of them aren't).
So whether you're overweight/black/have to wear a headpiece because of your religion I say you should be able to cosplay whatever you want. If you are overweight and want to cosplay a skimpier character than you normally would, more power to you! Or if you're overweight and you want to cosplay a skimpy character but modify their outfit to fit your body type better, I say go for it. Or if you have some sort of headpiece (the names of them elude me for some reason) and you want to incorporate that into your cosplay, do it!
"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent" those are wise words to live by. Because the minute you feel worthless about yourself because of what some douche-bag said about you or your cosplay that is the moment that you gave him the permission to hurt you. So if and when someone says something hurtful, don't let it (I know harder said than done), just walk away and be the bigger and better person that I know you are. That person will walk away from you knowing that their hurtful words couldn't penetrate your thick wall of self-confidence (even if you were pretending). Because I promise you the more you let hurtful things slide off your shoulders the more confident in yourself you will be (this is coming from experience).
And for instance, in the article if your friends are shaming you because you're "fat" or "black" or whatever and telling you that you shouldn't do something because of what other people may say (or what they will say) maybe you should reevaluate your friendships. I would never tell my friends that they shouldn't do something just because of superficial reasons. You will never get every single person to like what you've done. You could have spent a whole year and spent over $1000 and have the best looking thing and someone will hate it. There will always be a critic somewhere telling you you're not good enough. But FUCK THEM! As long as you (YOU!) are good enough for yourself no one should ever have the leverage to make you doubt yourself. It's all about you, it has always been about you. You don't cosplay for the masses and the douche-bags you cosplay for you and because YOU want to have fun.
And let me tell you something some of the most impressive stuff I've seen may not have been canon to people, but its still impressive to me. If you can spit out cosplay after cosplay (or even one a year) and still look amazing in it, honey you have my respect as a fellow cosplayer, a craftsperson, and a decent human being.
So sweetheart, cosplay on!
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