Taya Miller is a Cosplayer and Influencer across a multitude of social media platforms. At the time of writing she has over 4 million followers on TikTok and is approaching 600,000 followers on Instagram. She’s kind of a big deal. In this short Q&A Taya Miller talks to us about cosplay and fandoms and everything in between. So without further adieu, lets get into it.
What got you started in cosplay?
Taya Miller: “I’ve always been a big fan of Marvel and Star Wars, those are my two main fandoms. In 2019, I went to my first convention, Megacon, and I went there and I had this moment of realization that there are other people out there that share these same interests as me.
Growing up I had friends, but none of my friends were really interested in that kind of stuff so I never really talked about it with anyone. So, when I went to this convention I was like ‘wow, this is amazing, like heaven on earth for me!’ I wore a Spider-man suit and ended up meeting this big group of fellow Spider-man cosplayers. There was probably like 20 or 30 of us. Afterwards, we followed each other on social media and stuff. So ya, that’s kind of how I got started in cosplay.”
Do you prefer Marvel or Star Wars?
Taya Miller: “I get asked to choose between Marvel and Star Wars all the time and I don’t know if I can choose. If it really came down to it I would probably say Star Wars. I became a Marvel fan when the MCU movies came out but I was always a Star Wars fan. My dad has always been really into it and always encouraged it. He would be like ‘hey, we should watch Star Wars together or we should play Star Wars Trivia’ or stuff like that. So, I always grew up with Star Wars. If I really really had to choose it would be Star Wars.”
What is your favorite cosplay you’ve done?
Taya Miller: “It really depends on my mood. Deadpool is a lot of fun, there is always fun things to do with Deadpool. Fun content to make. Spider-man is the OG. That’s my first cosplay, my favorite Superhero ever. So, I wanna say Spider-man, I really do. It sounds so basic but he’s one of the Superheroes I relate to the most.”
“I also do Star Wars cosplays. I do a Padmé cosplay and I do a Rey cosplay and I love both of those characters so much.”
What is the best thing that has happened to you since you started?
Taya Miller: “In January 2020, me and some Tik Tokers got invited to the Lucasfilm campus in San Francisco. I was really really fortunate. We had the greatest time and got a tour of the whole place. We saw all this memorabilia and props from the movie, it was so cool!
“They had this little coffee place in there and it was called ‘Java the Hut’. At the end of it, it was like 3 or 4 o’clock, they brought us into one of their motion capture rooms and were like ‘Here is R2D2, like the actual R2D2 and here is BB8 and here are some props from the movies’. They gave us some Lightsabers to go and film whatever we wanted to film. We were so excited. One of the videos even ended up going viral. It got something like 2 million views.”
What is your dream outcome from all of this?
Taya Miller: ” I don’t know *laughs*. Ever since Tumblr, I’ve always wanted to be an Influencer, and here I am influencing people, it’s weird. Sometimes I forget that it’s my life right now, it sounds cheesy but I’m living my dream right now. In the future I would love to make this my full time job. I’m going to start developing my YouTube more. One day…
Another goal I have from this is to go to Children’s hospitals in cosplay. It’s something that NY Tony Stark does. He visits children’s hospitals as Iron Man. He was one of the first cosplayers I really followed. His impact in doing that really warms my heart. I want to be able to do that. He influenced me into wanting to do that.”
Any exiting future plans?
Taya Miller: “I’d love to go back to conventions, I miss them a lot. They’re like my favorite part of cosplaying. I remember this one time, I was dressed as Raven and my friend was Starfire. We were walking around and this one little boy, he was probably like five or six, and he was scared to approach me. He was really nervous and his Dad like reached over to me and was like ‘Raven is his all time favorite character and this is like a dream for him right now, would you mind taking a picture with him?’. It made my heart so happy and the kid was so happy. I got to talk to him in character which was so cool.”
Anything you would like to add?
Taya Miller: “One of my biggest focus’ has been about being inclusive. A lot of fandoms are good with gate keeping. Some people gate keep and it sucks. Being a female, I feel that and it sucks. Something that I really focused on was being inclusive and telling people ‘you can like these things’. ‘You don’t have to prove to anyone that you like these things’. ‘ If you like them and it makes you happy, that’s OK’.
Something else I focus on is self confidence. I was not a confident person before social media and hated how I looked and I didn’t like who I was. I started social media and people started like hyping me up and so I gained all this confidence and I started cosplaying and I’m at the point where I’m so confident in myself. Now, I will go out in public in cosplay and have no shame. I enjoy it. Ya, you get weird looks from people but it’s what I love doing. It’s something I always preach to my followers. You enjoy this and it makes you happy so you need to be confident doing it. It doesn’t matter what anybody else says or thinks of you. Your life is your life and you need to make yourself happy first.
I want to make a safe space for people on social media that like these things. I’ve made videos about it before. Like if you have ever been bullied or shamed for things you like. This is your safe space, I will fight for you, I will stand up for you in the comments.
That’s pretty much my brand in a nutshell. I just want people to be happy with themselves. To live their lives the way they want to live them and not by other peoples judgments.”
Conclusion
A huge thank you to Taya Miller for doing this with us. We definitely learned a lot. Make sure to check her out at @TayaMillerr on Instagram or @TayaMillerr on Tik Tok.
Would you like to see another cosplayer or creator featured? Let us know in the comments or send us a DM on social media. Thanks for reading.
