Ivy, take one.
When I went to my first convention,
I thought, "That was awesome!"
You know, I want to be a part of that.
They're out there among us.
Real life heroes. Hiding in plain sight.
Fighting the good fight.
And making the world a little better for all of us.
I felt like I found my own people.
Each week, IGN will
change the life of an everyday hero.
It's just exciting to see other people
that love the same thing that I like.
Using professional costumers, makeup,
and effects artists, we will transform
well-deserving fans into their favorite characters.
Dreams do come true in Hero Makeover.
(upbeat music)
(piano music)
My name is Ivy Turner,
but in costume I'm known as Ivy Doom Kitty
and I'm based out of Los Angeles.
When I was growing up, I had a very supportive family unit,
but when I was going to school,
I was constantly made fun of.
So the heavier kid, there was a lot of
fat shaming, things like that.
Didn't have any friends in school.
I had very negative perceptions of myself,
lack of self-confidence, lack of self-esteem.
You know, the things that I heard day in day in and day out
at school, those things became my truth
that carried into my adulthood.
I became an introvert because if you're not around people,
you don't run the risk of being picked on
or body shamed or any of those things
and one thing I always resorted to was playing video games.
The first time I played Spyro, I was hooked.
It was actually one of the games
that my little sister and I played.
Thank you for releasing me, Spyro.
I remember playing video games with her
when we were little, especially Spyro.
It's like a more personal costume.
I love dragons and Spyro was definitely one of them.
(exciting music)
It wasn't until I saw cosplay, you know,
at the very first convention I went to,
where, you know, I realized, you know, hey,
you can dress up as a character, even as an adult.
What was that experience like?
It was amazing.
It wasn't until about five years ago
where I had enough courage to finally make a costume
and go to a convention and wear it
and it was a phenomenal experience.
We are here at my studio,
where I build all of my costumes.
This one here is Spyro and I'll be working on this one.
It's a dragon, but I want to make it work for a human
and not just a human, the female form.
My female form.
It's not easy.
I'm very curvy.
I was like baaaa.
(laughs)
My mom said she was having twins.
It's tedious and time consuming,
but the end results are always great.
Hopefully it'll be a positive reaction.
People will love Spyro. They'll get it.
They'll look at it and say, "Yep, that's definitely Spyro."
(suspenseful music)
Congratulations, Ivy.
IGN has chosen you to transform on camera
at Stan Lee's LA Comic Con.
Your journey is about to begin.
Wow.
Okay.
Looks like you got a lot of work to do.
(exciting music)
I feel that cosplay can empower anyone.
(exciting music)
You are promoting a positive environment
that's safe for everybody.
(whimsical music)
So last night, my sister and I worked on the costume,
painting it, getting it to fit right,
and there's still more work to be done.
(video game sound effects)
It's the day of the Con
and also the day that I debut my Spyro costume.
(mystical music)
It's gonna be a lot of fun.
(mystical music)
If I can get one person to feel confident
in wanting to try something different,
in wanting to try something new,
or just cosplay in general,
then I feel that I've absolutely have been
able to accomplish my mission,
encouraging others to be more cos-positive.
We came up with this look
and I like how it's going so far.
(laughs)
How are you feeling?
I feel awesome.
Well that's good.
I feel like a dragon.
I'm gonna breathe fire. It's gonna be great.
(suspenseful upbeat music)
Here's the finished Spyro prosthetic and makeup look.
Kelton did an amazing job.
Now it's time to get on the Con floor.
(suspenseful music)
(suspenseful drum music)
(upbeat music)
It's about embracing yourself and having fun
and not caring about what anybody thinks or says about you.
When I'm in my costume, I feel insanely confident.
I am overwhelmed with happiness and excitement,
to be able to wear one of my favorite characters in gaming,
here at Stan Lee's Comic Con in LA.
(applause and cheering)
(whimsical music)
(suspenseful music)
Hey!
You look like a lizard!
(Ivy laughs)
How are you? How are you?
So it's a dragon, but I made it into a lady dragon.
It's incredible that you make these things.
(Ivy laughs)
Good seeing you. Thank you.
Take care.
Traveling around the world
and doing panels on the cos-positivity movement
and making costumes and all of these different things,
I would have said, "Nope! That's not me."
To me, a hero is somebody that helps other people,
that, you know, supports others
that is a force of positivity that people can look up to.
(soft music)
Cosplay can empower anyone, regardless of who you are,
what you look like, anything.
I want to be able to help and give back.
I created a series of panels
that cover different aspects of the community
and how we can help encourage others
to be more giving in the community
and also to want to cosplay,
regardless of anything that they feel is limiting them.
(soft music)
(soft piano music)
My self-confidence that I have now,
my self-esteem, everything, is owed to cosplay.
And if it can do the change that it did for me,
then it can do that for anyone.
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