On the streets of downtown Atlanta, superheroes, magicians, video game characters, and anime protagonists walk alongside people dressed in everyday clothes. Some stop for photos. Others compare costumes or admire elaborate props. For one weekend each year, thousands of people come together at Dragon Con to celebrate the fictional worlds they love.
For James West, 40, of Athens, Georgia, this year was his first time doing it.
“I thought, why not?” West said. “I dress up for Halloween, might as well.”
West had never been to a convention before Dragon Con, but he said the event offered something simple: a place where he could dress up however he wanted without worrying about being judged. “It just means a way to express yourself in a safe place where you can dress up as whatever you want, and there’s no judgment,” he said.
For many people, childhood is tied to fantastical imagination and unabashed excitement about the things they love. Growing up, however, can come with an expectation to leave those interests behind. At Dragon Con, that expectation seems to disappear, and for 19-year-old Hannah Marks of Alabama, it never really did.
Marks has been cosplaying since she was around 9 years old, when she attended her first convention in Birmingham. A decade later, she still dresses up as characters she loves and attends conventions around the Southeast, and Dragon Con is her first convention of this size.
“I think it’s really important as you grow up and get older to keep that fun and wonder with all your interests and stuff,” Marks said.
For Marks, cosplay isn’t something she grew out of but rather something that grew alongside her.
Many adults who attend Dragon Con share that sentiment. For 22-year-old Marah Ramesh of Suwanee, fandom has become less about holding onto childhood and more about finding people who share the same interests.
Ramesh, who was dressed as Cooking Mama from the Nintendo game, has attended Dragon Con regularly since around 2019 or 2020. She estimates that she has attended 10 to 12 conventions, including Dragon Con, MomoCon, and Anime Weekend Atlanta.
“I just love seeing everyone who loves the same things as me, and seeing how they interpret things, and how they enjoy everything,” Ramesh said. “I love this community.”
For Ramesh, the appeal lies deeply in being surrounded by people who understand why these interests matter.
That sense of community is part of what makes Dragon Con different from simply enjoying a favorite movie, game, or anime at home. Here, enthusiasm is not something to hide, but something people come together to share.
Some people spend months creating costumes. Others arrive at their first convention simply wondering what it will be like to dress up in public. Some have been attending conventions for years, while others, like West, are just beginning. But across those different experiences is a common willingness to take something that might be dismissed as childish and embrace it anyway.
In fact, according to ABC Life Literacy Canada, engaging in childhood imagination as an adult enhances one’s memory and boosts one’s problem-solving skills.
For friends Kayla Buckland, 21, and Justyne Nguyen, 22, that imagination began with anime and video games. They started experimenting with cosplay at home around 2021 or 2022 before attending conventions and taking it more seriously.
Nguyen said one appeal of being an adult fan is having the freedom to pursue interests that might have been harder to explore as a child.
“When you’re an adult, you can actually make money and buy the things you like,” Nguyen said.
