i think a lot of people do it because if you're
like shy or maybe you have some troubles with social interaction
it won't be like as scary interacting with people because they don't know who you are
honestly i'm already a weird person at some point in my young adult life i just snapped
and did not care about judgment from anyone from anything
my name is Ciaran Lyons my life is pretty normal but not everyone's life is like mine some
are rarely seen i'm about to go deep inside these hidden worlds to experience life done differently
we're in canberra today we're um we're gonna go and visit a fairy fairy a fairy furry furry my
r sounds are from ireland i know very little about what a furry is yeah i think a lot of people think
that there's a big sexual side to furries i'm intrigued to ask about whether that's just a big
stereotype i'll try not to cross hand stirring because i did found my driving test for that so
yeah i found my driving test five times that's why i didn't want to mention
five times and you're gonna be a fairy yeah i'm gonna give being a furry a crack
this is leo balfour he's a 22 year old from canberra and he is a furry the broad definition
is a furry is somebody who likes anthropomorphic animals so pretty much animals with human
characteristics so they might walk on two legs or they might wear clothes or talk usually furries
will make um a fursona which is like a persona of them as an animal and then what you do if you
want to is get a fursuit made and then you can go to conventions and dress up as them
and that's pretty much the basis of being a furry so how many furries do you think are in australia
or thousands easily while we don't know exactly how many we do know this the majority of furries
are under the age of 25 identify as male and keep their lifestyle a secret from their family
there's the people who will just hide it from everyone so they'll have like for example
a personal facebook and they'll have a furry facebook where they add all their furry friends
or there's the people who will have like furry art pinned up in their office cubicle
and stuff like that leo first came across the fandom in his early teens after seeing articles
in magazines furry art and videos about the lifestyle online he was instantly drawn to
it especially the full body fur suits you're gonna need to do a little bit of contortionism
there you go how do you feel oh man it's definitely gonna be hot soon
i'm going to become leo's fursona kaya and head out and about in canberra it's an endurance sport
but first i want to know what makes a person turn to a life in fur what do they feel when they put
on that suit well it's different for everyone of course some people feel like they become the
character i get in there um and you put the mask on and what you can see are people smiling when
they see you they wave at you people want to come take photos people say wow i like the attention
where does that need for attention come from oh my parents didn't love me as a child right okay leo
is a funny guy but i feel that sometimes he uses humor as his armor as well as fur he says that for
his friends and family his life as a furry came as no surprise honestly i'm already a weird person if
someone's gotten past that the furry thing is not going to be strange do you still get that
judgment thing where you feel like once you're in the outfit there's like no fear of judgment
whatsoever or you just always been like that you don't have that yeah honestly at some point in
my young adult life i just snapped yeah and did not care about judgment from anyone from anything
that resilience leo has was earned more so when he realized he was transgender five years ago
so pretty much i uh started transitioning when i was about or like socially transitioning um i
was about 17ish 18 um and then over the over times like medically transitioned as well so like you've
got to get over a lot of stuff to be able to do that you've got to have a lot of self-acceptance a
lot of self-confidence and a lot of being able to like just do what you want regardless of judgment
from other people was your parents along the way the whole were they no no way it's at this point
leo starts talking about his family and it's clear it's a subject he doesn't want to discuss publicly
for him being trans is not defining like being trans it's not it's just something that happens
you know it's just like a medical thing it's not a huge deal dude like obviously with transitioning
and the furry like because they were yeah around the similar time yeah do you think they were
intertwined like uh i think it's just um mostly because that's the sort of age where you start
figuring stuff out for yourself figuring out what you're into what you like to do so for example if
you're um transitioning to female from male and you haven't done that yet so physically you still
look male it can be really good to have like a very obviously feminine persona and you can put
that on and have people call you like she and stuff and say oh she's so cute and that's very
like validating for people right so it's almost like they can test out yeah before fully doing it
because you know transitioning takes years it's a lot of work um it's just some like a quick
easy way to get out of it and get escapism and like validation for like maybe a weekend
leo is a creative through and through he plays a bunch of instruments and is pretty handy on a
sewing machine so much so that making fursuits is his full-time job so this is where all the
magic happens i've never used a sewing machine before so fur is trickier than other materials
and eye coordination isn't great leo started his business creative beasts when he noticed the gap
in the market and realized he had a natural gift and the patience to work with for her
yeah just a little bit more there you go you're doing it very confident it's like my driving
i'm concentrating big time now this is my job you're working for me now
i didn't think i'd be these terrifieds on this so sorry welcome to extreme sewing
okay this is actually way harder than it looks i promise a full fursuit takes leo a long
long time to make which adds to its three thousand dollar price tag he does most of
his business at conventions which are a massive aspect of the furry fandom it's a good place to
um meet new people uh with similar interests you can hang out with friends you can talk to artists
it's almost always held in a hotel the convention will book out a hotel pretty much everyone in the
hotel will be a furry at the convention yeah so it's a big community if they're booking at hotels
oh definitely for some people there's another more adult side to being a furry and after dark during
a convention there are some furries who want to explore sexual fantasies and there's like i think
for like a lot of people have this misconception that like like people in furry outfits like they
like to explore some wild sexual fantasies like at these 18 plus parties like well that's definitely
a part of it but like pretty much every fandom is going to have that aspect of it you can find adult
art of anything online there are specific furry outfits for those who want to take their fandom
into the bedroom that's not a fursuit that's what you call a mursuit and that's something that is
specifically for that side of thing and you do not bring it out into the public or other other
conventions so like just for sanitization and for cleanliness sake you just keep that separate um
you might like take photos and post them online but then if you want to interact with people in
public you have a different one um that's not something that you're supposed to cross really
why is that well because you don't want to have a let's see something that has been
in that sort of situation then going out and giving hugs to strangers you know okay
because furries are big on hugs and you don't want to like sometimes you see someone's suit's
a bit scuzzy and you're like i don't so it's very frowned upon for yeah okay okay i gotcha
a lot of people don't want to have anything to do with that um it's not it's not cool of course
covert has temporarily halted all the furry conventions so my only taste of what it's like
is to go out in public wearing a full fursuit are you ready i'm pumped okay let's do it
it's a nice day outside it's a nice day for um normal people for a fursuit not so much well i've
got a tail as we've got a huge tail and this just goes in here and there crocs oh they're actually
crocs they're actually crocs inside this is probably the part that you didn't think would be
the hardest getting shoes on kid i did i shouted this morning that's good that's important oh like
just push down yeah go oh and the head definitely won't get stuck and i won't be able to get it off
so i can't actually see i'm just trying to find my feet i would never have thought that being
a furry would be this challenging come on out and check yourself out in this mirror oh wow
like a you're a different person yeah it's very it's very heavy and you feel very i can imagine
you get very hot in this oh yeah i'm about to go through the reception now where there's going to
be other people so give me some advice like what uh wave at them right uh smile but that's easy
because you're already permanently smiling just pretend there's nothing weird going on
we're in a revolving door you've got no space let's go this way
a big raccoon demon how about walking no you're doing good
could i get a little bit off the side no worries oh that's all for dead
hit me with your best shot fire away let's go camera sometimes kids freak out definitely oh no
any dance moves you'd like to see on request can you do the prince crossover ready
here we go nailed it
oh my god how you doing it's hot in there i was hot i was exhausted but i felt
so free oh it's uluru hot in there it is so hot it is like 70 degrees in there it's a different
experience like you don't care about anything it's like you just got this carefree zone that
you're in i wouldn't do any of that stuff if i didn't have a mask on it changes your confidence
level like on the street you can just dance away like i don't even dance in a nightclub where you
can dance let alone on a street around business executives walking up and down the street you know
you don't care about being judged i totally get why people get into these outfits and especially
you know somebody that might want to explore a different side to them but doesn't have
that confidence to do so i can totally see how it can just be an enjoyable experience
you can meet any type of people as a furry i mean people you
know are probably furries and you don't even know it
it really helps a lot of people kind of come out of their shell and like
get to be social in a different way
being a furry is so much about community it's about belonging to a group
it's a social circle like-minded friends who understand each other there's little judgment
a lot of support and freedom to be whoever you want to be like all of us furries want acceptance
they may not find that in their real life but in the furry fandom they're welcomed with open arms
for some that may be a fetish but for most it's about friendship i think there's a
really important lesson to be learned from the way furries do life don't judge accept
relish the freedom to be whoever or whatever you want to be and be loved by others for it
you