In 2014, I wore the comic book Captain Marvel costume to HeroesCon, a guy ran up to me and asked if I could take a picture with his baby daughter. She was wearing a little Captain Marvel shirt and red boots and was just the cutest thing. I tried to hold her but she squirmed away and her dad said “Oh, she’s in one of those phases where she doesn’t want to be held. But she fist bumps!” So I stuck out my fist and she punched it rapidly like the little genius she was. The dad snapped a pic, and we ended up following each other on instagram and becoming good friends (IG: @tsfogg).
Cut to this past year, and Scott was asking around about how he could get his daughter a Captain Marvel costume in time for the movie. I offered to make her costume myself. He sent me all her measurements and I sewed up her costume, which is what you see her wearing in the picture on my IG. Scott and I then schemed about the particular pictures we wanted to take with her and me together at Heroescon 2019, and top on Scott’s list was to re-create the fist-bump photo from 5 years before. A Captain Marvel fist-bump five years in the making!
Overall, cosplaying Carol this year has been such a treat, with the movie having come out and all. So many tiny girls were shaking with excitement when they saw me, and I was so happy that I had this opportunity to be this tough, awesome superhero woman for them. And the little boys, too! I took a picture with a little boy who was dressed up as Captain Marvel and I almost cried; it’s so wonderful to see these sorts of things changing since when I was a little girl. When I was little it seemed like there were no female characters I could relate to, and women were just nuisances in a story you had to endure to get to the good stuff. Now, to see little girls and little boys loving Captain Marvel and not learn all that toxic, misogynist junk I learned as a little girl is just wonderful, and I’m thrilled to be a part of it.