Ok I have something dorky to kind of admit. When I go to job interviews and I'm really really nervous I put on my best business like clothes and pretend that I'm Leslie Knope.

Now to help make me seem not completely like a psycho I mean that I just kind of embody the positive qualities of her personality. And why not she's cool, she's smart, energetic, and get's what she wants. So I'm not going to lie when I say that it has actually worked every time.

A good way to describe this kind of thing I do is to refer to the phrase of fake it till you make it. If I'm having a day where I'm not happy with myself or I'm nervous and need a pick me up, I can just try and be one of my favorite fictional character's for a moment and act like they would in the situation I'm in until I feel better about myself. The sneaky way of doing this is through incorporating light cosplay into my life.

For some I'm sure that when you hear the word cosplay, your mind might just immediately go to people dressed in costumes at events like San Diego Comic Con. However, what I am talking about is something pretty different from that. What I am talking about is finding small and fun ways of incorporating your favorite character's looks or small nods, into your everyday life to give you that boost of confidence you need or something to turn that frown upside down. The best part about this though is that no one is really even going to notice what you're doing. You are the only one who is really seeing this and that's all that is going to matter.

We are going to talk about how this process can be done and for a character example I decided to base my look off of everyone's new and favorite Magizoologist, Newt Scamander from Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

Clothing:

You'll want to find very basic versions of the clothing for the character you're basing your look off of, or find a color scheme that also matches theirs. For example, if you were basing your look off Disney's Snow White you would want clothes ranging from the colors blue, red, white, and yellow (as seen below).

With Newt he has a kind of basic outfit that's easy to follow so I grabbed brown leggings, boots, a white shirt, my Gryffindor scarf (gotta rep my house), and a blue jacket kind of similar to the one worn throughout the film (fun fact when I first purchased this back in 7th grade I mainly wanted it so I could look like Jenny Humphrey from Gossip Girl).

Makeup:

This one is kind of a free for all. Whatever makeup that you think looks best on you I say wear it and rock it. But if you really want to keep this in character you could try and copy that character's look or once again go back to your color scheme. For my coloring I kept to warm brown/yellowy colors to represent Hufflepuff, the Hogwarts house from which Mr. Scamander used to be a part of.

Hair:

This step is one of the most fun ones because it allows you the chance to be really creative. You just try and copy the texture or the style and bam your done. It's like you're a whole different person. For instance here is a Arya Stark (Game of Thrones) hairstyle I did once.

Now obviously I don't have hair like Eddie Redmayne's, shocker I know, so I just went with big curls to kind of copy the waviness his hair has. Fun fact, to cut time I just tossed my hair in a ponytail and curled all of the hair in the ponytail, it saves so much time!

Photoshoot time!:

Now that you are looking at your best it's time to show yourself off. I always take selfies to make myself remember how happy I was with my look and how confident I felt that day and plus it doesn't hurt to let your inner dork out and take themed photos.

(Me and a terrifying beast/pygmy puff bonding)

(Accidentally making the same shocked face as Newt)

(Shhh totally climbing into this normal chest with not an extension charm with a beast)

(Used to much maxima with my Lumos charm)

(One normal picture for the muggles)

And now it's time to go out into the world and embody the character you're representing. Have fun with it as you start to feel more confident with who you are!