S1 E15 The Cosplay Crunch W/ Yaya Han

We made it to the FINALE of The Cosplay Crunch Season 1! In episode 15, Yaya Han joins the podcast for a special, extended episode where we tell ALL regarding Yaya's 25-year journey through cosplay. We highlight Yaya’s early cosplay years, the changing relationship between conventions and cosplay programming, and cosplay through social media and online criticism. Convention etiquette has changed, and we dig into the pre and post pandemic convention experience, as well as international cosplay culture /contests versus cosplay in the United States. And of course, we had to bring up the TV show 'Heroes of Cosplay' to get some behind the scenes tea on what really was going on! Stay until the end where you get insight related to how Yaya’s partnership with Bernina / Bernette began and birthed the B79 Yaya sewing machine, as well as her personal thoughts on writing her book and publishing right before the start of the pandemic. 

Yaya Han is a cosplayer, designer and author with more than 20 years of activity in the fandom world. Yaya has made over 400 costumes, been featured in two US Network TV Shows and countless magazines, books, newspapers and online media outlets, and she appears as a guest and speaker at hundreds of events all over the globe. Over the years, Yaya’s work has impacted cosplay profoundly and has helped shape it into a commercial industry. Yaya is the first cosplayer to bring branded cosplay-focused sewing and crafting products such as fabrics, trims and a Yaya Han sewing machine to the mass retail market. She is also the first to chronicle a cosplayer’s life story and the evolution of modern cosplay culture in the book, “Yaya Han’s World of Cosplay”.

Find Yaya on Instagram @yayahan or on all of her other platforms via her website yayahan.com

Photo by @brian_b_boling