Electric. Winning. Entrepreneurial. Intelligent.

All of these words aptly describe Heather Coy, an intelligent and beautiful young woman with an electric smile and winning personality who turned her love of Disney into a business venture.  Heather created her own Princess party company called Snow Princesses in Georgia to help earn money during college. Reading the reviews (all 5 stars by the way) she is not only enchanting but can sing and truly embodies the characters she plays.  From my brief interactions with her, she is also sweet and charming.  She took time out of her busy schedule to do an interview for all of us Disney Nerds, which she is one too!

Thank you so much for doing an interview with us! I love your cosplay. Tell us a little about yourself and how you got into doing cosplay to begin with. You mentioned on Instagram you’ve only been posting for about a year. What about cosplay itself drives you to keep doing it?

Hello, thank you for having me! I’m Heather, I’m 23 and I currently live in Georgia. I got into cosplay about 2-3 years ago, but have been dressing up as the princesses for about 4 years now. I started a princess organization in my hometown to visit hospitals, schools, and events while in college as a part time job for myself. My love for children and of course Disney really fueled the idea of what I wanted to do as well as my past experiences with acting and makeup. I also started attending cons for performances with my Improv group from college called On the Spot. While at these cons I was fascinated by cosplayers and realized that it was a way for me to embody my favorite characters even more. As I started to get more into cosplay and added more characters that I wouldn’t necessarily use for my princess organization I decided to make an Instagram and here we are! Cosplay to me is just a way to not only express yourself but express your love for the characters you portray and also meet others who love what you love.

You are not only beautiful, but you capture the look of each of your characters to a “t.” What do you think is the key to finding the essence of the characters you cosplay? Like with Ariel, what was essential about her cosplay that captures who she is?

Since I do most of these characters for children I want them to have them to look the most believable as to not ruin the magic for a child so i spend days and weeks researching the characters I play (as if I haven’t been watching them my whole life already) and really finding what makes that character unique and what traits are important to portray with each character. I work hard to perfect the makeup and the costume of each one and am constantly improving with each wear. With Ariel, other than the obvious things like her Hair and her tail/dress it’s important she has her youthful glow and her smile as she’s always looking for the best in a situation and so so so determined to get what she wants.

Personally, I love your Ariel! She is my favorite Disney princess and you do her so well. I love your electric smile and how well your cosplay captures who she is. What is your favorite character to cosplay and why?

Thank you! Ariel has always been my favorite princess since I was a child and her release date is even on my birthday so I’ve always felt a special connection to her. Through cosplay I’ve actually found that my favorite to play is Aurora. I just love the elegance of her dress and hair and who doesn’t love a crown? Aurora is so regal and gentle and I feel like an entirely new person once I get her full ensemble on.

You seem to choose characters that are really well-suited to you. What goes into the process of choosing who you are going to cosplay?

While researching that characters I not only watch their movies, but I look at their counterparts in the park to determine which features translate from their animations. Things like face shape and eye shape as well as size and height, and i determine if I am the right fit for a character. This is all however mostly concerning when I princess for children as for cosplay I do not think it is important to look exactly like a character as you cosplay for you not others. So you should cosplay whoever you want! For cosplay specifically I choose characters that have made a large impact on my life that I want to embody.

How about how long does it take for you to develop a new character? And what are you working on now that excites you the most?

Time varies for each character really. Some of them such as Rey from Star Wars, I realized I could make all by myself, and I made her within a week. Others like Aurora I had to buy everything pretty much and I do not have all the money in the world so I usually wait for pieces to come up on a buy/sell page. It took me about two years to get everything I needed for her. So it really depends on all sorts of things. Currently I am working on Glinda the Good Witch from the Wizard of Oz for a production in my community, but I hope to cosplay her as well. Everything about this cosplay is so over the top and I can’t wait to see the finished product.

Who doesn’t love Gwen Stacy? Heather looks beautiful as classic Gwen (pre-Spider Gwen)

Heather feels a connection to Rey’s character and is enjoying how Star Wars is embracing more female characters to connect with

You do a lot of Disney / Marvel / Star Wars cosplay – are you a Disney Nerd like us? What do you love about Disney and the characters they create that inspire you?

I have always been a Disney nerd. The fact that most of them are characters I grew up on and have always been a part of my life is what drives me to recreate them. They all posses such wonderful and unique qualities and show us the best in ourselves. The newer characters continue to explore that as well. Seeing Rey in the new Star Wars sequels was life changing for me as I finally had a character in a series I loved that I could relate to 100% and she was the main focus. I love that the characters break boundaries and show the true magic in all of us.

Thank you so much for your time and I hope you’ll let us catch up with you in the future!

Thanks again for having me!

• You can follow Heather on Instagram as southernrosecosplay and on Facebook you can find out more at Snow Princesses and Friends