Grownups can dress up too, so do it before it’s mainstream.

Cosplay, a practice that involves dressing up as fictional characters, has become more popular with time thanks to events like the San Diego and New York Comic-cons’, Blizzcon, and other similar conventions. Although the community in the U.S. is well developed enough to have its own celebrities, such as Yaya Han and Jessica Nigri, it still holds to its amateur roots.

The Kansas City, MO area has slowly become more familiar with this activity thanks to the growing community. With events such as Motaku, Planet Comicon and Naka-Kon, and cosplay groups such as The KC Cosplay and Photography group, costumed events have become the trend.

The KC Cosplay group is a large community in Kansas City. The group grew from an estimate of 60 to almost 500 members since May this year, and they have organized different costume and non-costume events ever since. They organize as many events as possible, with an average of 4 to 8 costumed events a month.

For Tatiana Schaffer, a Kansas City based cosplayer, the rapid growth of the cosplay community has meant more opportunities for entertainment, new friends, and also lot of work. Having been a part of the KC cosplay community since 2008, Schaffer has been able to witness its rise firsthand: she mentioned that in the past “cosplay wasn’t considered cool at all.” She said, “When I started cosplaying, it was unusual and weird. Now it’s the ‘popular’ thing to do.”

Naka-Kon, is an annual event that has taken place in Overland Park, Kan., every spring since 2005. For Schaffer, Naka-Kon is one of the most important events in her schedule, given the sheer number of attendees it attracts. She also added that it is her favorite event, since it was the first she attended to and she has grown with it.

Additionally, Schaffer feels that cosplay merchandise in common stores like Hot Topic, and the recent media interest on the cosplay subculture with the creation of the reality show “Heroes of Cosplay” by Syfy has helped the general public in Kansas City get informed about both these events and cosplayers’ activities. This new found curiosity, she said, has accomplished a lot since she first started. According to Schaffer, “Most people are interested in what we are doing but in a positive way. They are genuinely curious and then think it’s cool that we are doing it.”

But themed conventions are not the only events for the community’s gatherings. The cosplay community in Kansas City has grown, creating cosplay groups and online communities that organize meet-ups outside of the mayor annual events, sharing costume construction techniques or any ways of help among the group. Schaffer has mentioned that these gatherings tend to happen every two or three months, and although they attempt to meet more regularly, times and places often mean a limitation.

The cosplay meet-ups, according to Schaffer, have grown to around 20 to 30 attendants, and some other groups arrange meetings for different purposes. “There is another KC cosplay group on Facebook that hosts movie meet-ups.” She said, “Like, for example, they did a ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ movie premiere, where they went to the movies in cosplay.”

Rachel Dow, member of KC Cosplay group, also shared some insight on how their group has helped the KC’s cosplay community. The KC Cosplay and Photography group has organized several movie premieres, all of them organized with the movie theater’s administration’s help. According to the group, its “Guardians of the Galaxy” movie premiere received a positive reaction from the general public. “The public is always incredibly excited and entertained by our cosplayers,” she said.

However, cosplay can signify some costs that the general public is not aware of. According to Dow, “Cosplay expenses only have to be what you want them to be.” Some hobbyists put more effort on their costumes than others, and this can make the expenses vary. “There are always cheaper ways to cosplay. Having some pieces commissioned is always an option,” said Dow. But being part of the group comes with some benefits, which includes exchanging skills (like sewing skills for prop-making skills) for the sake of budgeting. According to Dow, “Being a group that includes everyone helps in that we are able to work with businesses to get members discounts on certain products and teach aspiring cosplayers how to manipulate materials into amazing costume pieces.”

For this community, cosplay can be as hard as you want it to be, and thanks to the high involvement and positive reaction from the general public, Kansas City is the place to go if you feel like dressing up in the middle of April.