Scoop: First off, please introduce yourself!
Ukraine Kraine: My name is Ashley, but online my cosplay alias is Ukraine Kraine. I live in eastern Pennsylvania and I’m a personal assistant at a button and bead company.

Scoop: What was your first introduction to the cosplay hobby? What was it about cosplay that made you want to participate?
Ukraine Kraine: I had always wanted to dress up like my favorite characters, ever since I first got into anime when I was younger. I used to play dress up with whatever I had in the house and act out my favorite scenes from animes I liked. I never realized cosplay was a thing until I hit my senior year of high school and I found photos from some convention online. After that I became obsessed; I really didn’t get the chance to actually cosplay for myself until my freshman year of college.

Scoop: What is your personal approach to your costumes? How do you choose what character to emulate? Do you tend to make your own outfits, or do you receive help?
Ukraine Kraine: The first thing for me is having a series I really love. It’s hard for me to be really motivated in making something if it’s not a series character that I’m personally interested in. Recently I read through all of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure and I’ve been making some of my favorite characters from that. I tend to pick my favorite characters over the prettiest design. So maybe someone else might not find the design that interesting or crazy, but I love the character so much that it doesn’t matter to me!

Scoop: What was one of your best and most memorable experiences in cosplay?
Ukraine Kraine: Cosplaying Maya Amano from the game Persona 2. We had a pretty big group for the game—most of the characters from it. It’s a game that not many people have played, so when people recognized us, it was super exciting. It was just fun doing such a big group with friends that I don’t get to see often. Everyone’s costumes were amazing, everyone was having a good time. I couldn’t ask for a better group.

Scoop: What was one of your worst experience?
Ukraine Kraine: Probably one of my earliest cosplaying experiences, I was cosplaying a character with heels and I didn’t think to break in the heels before I wore them for the first time. By the end of the day my feet were bleeding. It wasn’t a pleasant experience, but I did learn from it.

Scoop: What challenges or issues do you think cosplayers face most?
Ukraine Kraine: On a more personal level I think the biggest issues a lot of cosplayers have is money. Cosplaying is a pretty expensive hobby, and I think a lot of people don’t realize how expensive it really is when they first get into it. It’s not only buying the supplies to make a costume, but most of these are made to be worn at a convention, and you have to pay to go to that. I think, with time, most people learn how to balance their money and what they can afford for conventions. Cosplaying is something that I feel is a hobby, and as a hobby you have to learn how to pay for it yourself.

Scoop: What do you think cosplay adds to the overall convention experience?
Ukraine Kraine: For me, cosplaying is a major part of the convention. I end up planning a lot of my con experience around cosplaying. I cosplay with friends, I like to go to gatherings and meet new people, and I like taking pictures of other people in cosplay. I don’t think I could go to a con without cosplaying. It wouldn’t feel the same.

Scoop: Do you have any major costume or convention plans lined up in the near future?
Ukraine Kraine: My next major cons are MAGfest and Katsucon. As for what I’ll be cosplaying, it’ll probably be more from Jojo. I’m also planning on something from the new Ace Attorney vs. Professor Layton game, though I still need to decide what!

Scoop: Final thoughts:
Ukraine Kraine: Cosplaying is something that’s given me a new skill, as well as some amazing friends. I hope it’s something I can continue doing for a long time to come. You can check out my cosplay on my Facebook page.