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Is it really a surprise that Mica Burton would be into cosplay? After all, her father, LeVar Burton portrayed Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge on “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” And the Trekkie’s love to don a costume or two. As for Mica, 22, she discovered her love for the art, after picking her father up from the annual Comic Con event in San Diego.
And according to Essence, from there she got her first costume and would wear it everyday while watching her favorite television show “Sailor Moon.”
“I say that I was born into a Star Trek family because the influence has always been there.” Still, Mica didn’t attend her first cosplay convention until she was in junior high, when a friend invited her.
Mica explains that she felt a sense of belonging there especially after having being teased by other Black kids who called her an Oreo for having interests that were different from their own.
Mica continued to attend conventions in high school and throughout college, using sewing skills passed down from her grandmother and makeup tips from her mother, a makeup artist.
After linking up with the one of the creators of the YouTube gaming channel, Rooster Teeth and keeping in touch, Mica was eventually offered a role as a content creator and eventually became an on-air talent.
She is also a cosplay model with over 40 thousand followers on Instagram. Mica said that she would like to see more cosplayers of color in the future.
“Right now, about 2% of cosplayers that I see at conventions are African American, and there are even fewer professional cosplayers.” She attributes this lack of representation to Black people not always feeling comfortable showing their “nerd side” in public and even comments from within the cosplay community, like “You look good in that costume for a Black girl.”
Check out Mica in some of her many costumes on the following pages.
