Clad in black lace petticoats and fishnet stockings, Amanda Stanlow, 23, walks down the mall and is known for her goth style. Her education path combines with how she verbalizes her opinion on her appearance and style.
Stanlow is a psychology major that currently performs shows for preschool age children. Despite her appearance and interest in abnormal psychology, she is keen to working with children.
“I do really well with kids but I realized I want to work with people that are mature,” Stanlow said. “I can speak with them on a different level.”
Selecting a career path is done through trial and error.
“I do work with kids right now. I work in children’s entertainment for a company that performs educational shows at preschools,” Stanlow said. “We do shows that teach them about science, or reading and stuff like that. My favorite is the bubble science show.”
A bubble show includes different types of props to create various styles of bubbles and effects.
“We use smoke machines and bubble machines. In our finale we use giant bubble wands that can fit a person in it,” Stanlow said.
If another solution is added to the bubble mix other effects can occur.
“We’ll do glow in the dark bubbles or something like blow a bubble with our hands throw it to another person and they will catch it. It’s a really cool show I love it,” Stanlow said.
Juli-Ann Giron met Stanlow about five years ago and has a friendship that is essential to her.
“She’s very intuitive,” Giron said. “This is important to me since she can tell when I don’t feel well because I’m chronically ill.”
First impressions may make or break a relationship. For Anya Giernet, who has known Stanlow for about two years, their friendship got off to “a rough start.”
“We kind of hated each other at first but we both liked each other’s styles,” Giernet said. “Through another friend we eventually became pretty good friends.”
Stanlow has a unique outlook on her style and why she considers herself goth.
“The thing that stands out about me is that I’m goth but amongst others my style is said to be cute,” Stanlow said.
Stanlow explains how her style is different than others.
“I don’t know how I got into it, I just liked it,” Stanlow said. “I like a lot of the stuff in goth, but that’s why my style is cute. There’s so many subcategories and there wasn’t one that fit me.”
Stanlow did not jump into the subculture without understanding where and how it began.
“If I’m going to be using things from the subculture then I should pay respect to it,” Stanlow said. “I did a lot of research, what makes someone goth and the origins of it. There are certain bands you should know and appreciate so you don’t look like you don’t know what you are doing.”
Stanlow was heavily into cosplay in previous years but has not stopped attending conventions due to the ticket prices and costume expenses.
“I started cosplaying in 2008. My first cosplay was Android 18 from ‘Dragon Ball Z’ which I wore to Anime Expo [in 2008],” Stanlow said. “I don’t really go to the other conventions though.”
There are many different characters that can be worn at the conventions. Manga books and anime, manga’s visual counterpart, are the two most popular categories for cosplay.
Vocaloid, which was released in 2004, is a software application technology for singing voice synthesis developed by Yamaha.
“My favorite cosplay is a character from Vocaloid called Rin,” Stanlow said. “I wear it so much that it’s starting to fall apart. It gets a lot of love.”
Popular Vocaloids such as Kagamine Rin have trading card games. Stanlow carries around her pack of cards as she feels it reflects her personality.
“This is the one trading card game that I play because someone got me hooked on it,” Stanlow laughed. “I’m such a nerd.”
