Sometimes, everyone,
life gets you down.
Particularly if you're disabled,
you can have some really dark days.
I've got what's known as
spastic diplegia cerebral palsy.
I've had it from birth.
I'm a wheelchair user.
I can't walk or stand.
It affects every part of me.
Being a disabled cosplayer
can be extremely difficult.
Sometimes you can be very low.
When I've had my dark days, cosplay
has definitely been a sort of
beacon that has
broken through that darkness.
With cosplay,
how it sort of works with us two is
that I always have sort of the idea
and the detail and everything,
and then I go,
"Van, I want to do this,"
and he will make it happen.
It is a very much team effort,
helping each other, making sure
we're the best that we can be,
and if we didn't have each other,
I don't think it'd be half as good.
Cosplay has changed
both our lives, really,
because I love how much fun you have
when we go to the events.
It can be a challenge. Of course
it can be, because you want to
be these characters which ordinarily
wouldn't be in a wheelchair.
When I first started doing it,
I was like, "Oh, my gosh,
"What are people going to think?"
They're going to sort of
almost typecast you into being
characters that are in a wheelchair.
The very first thing that was
ever said to me when I first
started researching and
finding out about it and everything
was, "You would make
an amazing Professor Xavier."
I was like, "Wait, hang on a second,
why? Because he's in a wheelchair?"
"No, I'm not just going to do that."
I would like to think that cosplay
is inclusive of everyone,
of every walk of life.
When I'm cosplaying, I feel like
people see past my disability
completely, that I am just
whoever I'm cosplaying as.
Because it is such
an inclusive community as well,
that everybody is accepted in.
I'm quite a large individual.
I'm not the most attractive
person in the world.
But I go out, and when I do
my cosplay, I feel fantastic,
and I feel like I'm always
the best one there, you know?
Not that I'm big-headed or anything.
It empowers you
to increase the self-esteem,
and when you've put that final thing
of your cosplay on,
and you look in the mirror,
you are no longer Sasha.
You are whoever
you're cosplaying as.
My cosplay character
is Harley Quinn.
She's my favourite character ever.
I've adored her since I was a child.
I've never wanted my disability
to be the definition of me or
define me in any way, and as Harley,
I get to be anything I want to be.
I get to be her,
and she can do so many cool things.
You'd probably notice if you were
to go through our roster of
cosplays, the majority are villains,
and the reason behind that is
they have a lot more fun
than being a superhero.
With a superhero,
you know what you get.
With a villain, you never know
what they're going to do, do you?
It's always fun to be
the bad man for a change.
When I'm Harley Quinn,
I feel invincible.
I feel like I can do anything,
and everyone I encounter, they just
see me as Harley. I'm not Sasha. I'm
not a young lady in a wheelchair.
I am Harley Quinn, this little
prankster who just loves life,
loves to laugh.
Cosplay has helped me
accept who I am,
and without cosplay I would never
have met all my friends,
I would never have met the love
of my life, and I would never be
the person I am today, the scary
Penguin version of myself today.
