This past June at Kalahari in Sandusky, OH I started a new project—interviewing fellow female cosplayers to learn more about not only cosplay itself, but also their experiences as women within nerd culture. My first step on this exploratory journey was to get some great resources to learn what has already been written on the topic. I started with the following books, which were available at my local Cuyahoga County library branch:

They provided insight into the world of geeky gals, and provided a primarily positive spin on the subject. This was an interesting start, but I wanted to learn more from the cosplay community that I was involved with and the community as a whole. I created a Survey Monkey site and shared it with many cosplay forums in major cities, which allowed me to get a wide array of responses from cosplayers around the US. Next I got in touch with the Colossal Con administration to get a table set up where I could meet cosplayers and, if they consented, conduct interviews with them to learn about how being a part of nerd culture has impacted their life—for better or worse.