Singapore's Top Cosplayer XIAOYUKIKO reveals about her career

Many local enthusiasts will probably know of XIAOYUKIKO. We did an listing of the most famous cosplayers in Singapore last year and she ranked number one! (Check out that listing here)

In 2021 she now has almost 1 Million fans across Instagram and Facebook and been invited to various events such as AFA Station.

However Yukiko started cosplay like any cosplayer did, have you ever wondered how did she make it from an average girl to a local cosplay star?

In our recent Skype interview with Yukiko, we were amazed at her rise to popularity in the cosplay scene within 2 years of entering the hobby. Let’s share her story and hopefully inspires all cosplay enthusiasts out there to keep pushing forward!

How it started

Yukiko started cosplaying with her schoolmates at Anime Festival Asia 2016 as Kuriyama Mirai. With her simple but cute debut cosplay, she had attracted much attention at the convention being a new cosplayer.

Through this, many cosplayers and photographers as people interact with her and asked for her Facebook profile. This is where she first entered the cosplay community.

Since then Yukiko became active cosplayer in the cosplay community like many and attend many local events. With each event, more people got to notice her cosplay and eventually grew a significant fan base.

“I think it was because I was so crazily enthusiastic about cosplay, I literally attended every single event there is back when I just started cosplaying.” said Yukiko

Yukiko eventually created her cosplay Instagram page in Jan 2017 and through sharing her cosplay online, this have brought her to the attention of international cosplay community. Within the first year, Yukiko grew to over 50K followers, next year, 100K and the following 200K... Within four years, Yukiko has now amassed over 900,000 fans across her social media platforms.

“When I just started, back in 2017, many cosplayers have yet to take Instagram seriously. The community was mainly on Facebook profile pages, and there was almost no such thing as "Local Cosplay Stars or Celebrities" No one really had much followers. If anyone did work towards that, it is seen as a "wannabe" thing. But to me, being a hobbyist beauty blogger before this, Instagram is my true home ground. I think I was the first few who started taking cosplay onto Instagram in Singapore. I do believe it is partly luck, I started it at the right time.” said Yukiko

Working as a Cosplayer

Yukiko started getting her first cosplay job offers 5 months into cosplay in 2017. By 2018, she already started boothing at events and earning up to minimum $2000 in a single event together with Patreon and Ko-fi where people support her online, Yukiko could earn up to $4000 a month purely from selling merch in 2018.

Now-a-days due to the pandemic, events are cancelled so she is not able to booth.

However she is still making a good income through advertising and sponsorships as a Geek Influencer. She also takes up sponsorships from game companies to stream on her Facebook Page.

The Harsh Reality

However, Yukiko also mentioned, “Cosplay isn’t a stable job, as much as I really enjoy doing it and put my 120% into it, I do not and will not see it as a full time job.” Despite earning a good sum of money currently, Yukiko realizes that “Cosplay is a 青春饭 (a job dependent on young age and beauty) and anyone will grow old and “expire” one day, you can’t depend on it for the rest of your life”

The 21 years old is now in her final year of studies, she puts in more effort into her studies currently, she still takes up business offers and event appearances from time to time but has cut down on content creation and stopped running her Patreon.

“That is the harsh reality... So to all fellow cosplay enthusiast, especially those still in school, or having major exams this year, I hope they will take studies as their top priority but continue to cosplay as your interest and earn from it if you are free to do so.”