Known as Chief Glitz and Glam in the cosplay community, Kara is the nerd behind it all. Kara’s cosplays range all over the place. From glitter, sparkles, and rhinestones, to scary masked men, she’s got it all. With her crafting genes by her side, Kara showcases her special effects makeup background frequently with her cosplays. She likes to show that with a little creativity, your cosplay can soar!

After an accident at her dance competition in high school, and with COVID-19 on the rise, Kara mentioned she was stuck inside without a creative outlet for herself to indulge in. "...I had so much makeup from being a competitive dancer, and I've always liked to draw. ...So I was like, well. I guess I'll just start trying to draw stuff on my face" Kara says. She states that this is what got her into Special Effects (SFX) Makeup, and transitioned to her getting very skilled at makeup in general. 

As for cosplaying, Kara's first cosplay was Roxxane Wolf from the game Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach. "...with the help from my grandma, I made my first ever cosplay and I made videos about it on TikTok and it went viral. ...I think that's really what got me started on [cosplay]" Kara says. 

Kara explains that since she was little, she always knew that she wanted to work for theme parks. "...before the park was actually Six Flags, it was called Opryland, and my dad was an opening day guitarist there. ...So like, I grew up going to this park." After recovering from her injury in dance, she auditioned to be a dancer, but was too young at the time for the job, which caused her to be placed in scare acting. For two and a half years, Kara was involved with the team at Six Flags that did main stage acting, but when she started cosplaying, she was asked to change positions. "I remember being asked if I could hold a paintbrush. And I was like, yes I do. So, I started to help [the creative team] work on the Haunt Houses, and then I started working in makeup. ...But then other times I would be doing scenic art or prop restoration" Kara says.

"...if you want to learn stuff, don't be afraid to ask. Because the worst thing you can do is be prideful..." Kara says as advice to other cosplayers who want to learn the skills that she has in makeup and in SFX. She explains that most of the skills that she has now came from her asking questions to other, more experienced coworkers. "...my art style will be so different from yours. So don't try to be me, be you" Kara says about doing SFX makeup for the first time. She states that her favorite part about the cosplay community is that people will take huge bounds and leaps to learn skills that they otherwise would not learn if they didn't cosplay. Kara also states that she takes into account character design and how much a cosplay will challenge her current skills when deciding to make a cosplay. 

When it comes to making cosplays, Kara says that sometimes she can get stressed due to the amount of challenges that can arise when she is working on a project. She gives the example of when she was working on a ninja version of Harley Quinn from Batman as a time when she was faced with multiple challenges and stressors when it came to actually completing the cosplay. "I like to do things out of spite against my own self. So, I'm like no. It's not hard. ...You are going to finish this" Kara says. However, despite this thinking, she truly did not believe she was going to finish the cosplay.  

Kara says that she had always grown up around other creative people, which in turn caused her to be a more creative person as a result. Because of this, she treats everything with the same mindset when it comes to her cosplay work. "...if you want to get into SFX, don't look at a face like it is a face. Look at it like it's a blank canvas or a blank sheet of paper and start drawing" Kara states. Through this mindset, Kara realized that she liked doing makeup more compared to main stage acting, and would not have went into this avenue if it weren't for her dad pushing her to explore. "...my dad was like, why are you saying what if? ...He said, "Be the, why not. Why not go apply for that job? Why not go to this competition?...because the worst they can tell you is no."" Kara states that she uses the words from her dad to motivate herself when it comes to cosplay and her job, and tries not to hold herself back when it comes with her confidence.