Princess Nokia’s 5 Cosplay Ideas Will Make You Want to Be a Kid Again

When we last spoke to Princess Nokia, she was starring in the Foot Locker and ASIC’s Anime Campaign. As a big cartoon and anime fan, the campaign fit her perfectly.

Throughout the month of October, the soft spoken-star posted a few photos of different cosplay (short for “costume play”) outfits channeling female characters from some of her favorite shows. The performance art in which people dress up as personalities from books, movies and anime is often an act done for the pure enjoyment of creating the outfit — and maybe showing it off a bit too. PN nailed every look, and as she posted, waves of nostalgia overcame us.

The first cosplay she shared was as Eliza Thornberry from Nickelodeon’s The Wild Thornberrys, about a wildlife-loving family. One commenter responded, “Yay!! such a throwback. I LOVED this show,” and others began commenting on their childhood. Eliza lives a nomadic life with her adventurous parents, who travel and film their own nature documentaries. But her family doesn’t know her secret — she communicates with animals, which comes in handy during sticky situations in the jungle. This show inspired my dreams of traveling.

The “Tomboy” rapper of Puerto Rican descent didn’t have to deviate far from her style in order to channel Eliza’s older sister, Debbie Thornberry. The spunky sister had nothing in common with her adventurous relatives and was known as a rock lover. She was the Thornberry we wanted to hate because of her attitude toward her younger sister, but loved because she made crop tops paired with an oversized flannel look cool. Ripped jeans have always been a staple of grunge subculture, which PN frequently embraces.

Lip syncing to “Black Sheep” by the indie rock band Metric, PN honored the “ninja delivery girl” from The Scott Pilgrim graphic series, Ramona Flowers. The song was a bonus on the movie’s soundtrack, and Nokia fully embraces Pilgrim fandom while wearing Ramona’s iconic goggles. The character’s ability to travel through subspace as well as be a kick-ass combatant is the stuff of adolescent legend, but it was her guarded demeanor and the frequent wig switching that fascinated me as a teen.

The singer gave her own twist to the conventional Wednesday Addams tribute. The most outstanding features of The Addams Family’s bitter and mischievous spider-raising child of woe are her hair’s middle-part with two braids and her pale skin. PN skipped the white-face but made sure to incorporate the Peter Pan collar dress. The fictional clan was originally created as a comic strip for The New Yorker, before the characters were adapted for TV in 1964. Christina Ricci played the most memorable version of Wednesday for the 1991 film.

Celebrating Makoto Kino, also known as Sailor Jupiter, the 26-year-old rapper recreated the green-and-white Sailor Soldier outfit seen in the anime series Sailor Moon. Moon leads the girl gang that Jupiter belongs to. The Soldiers transition from regular school girls to fighting comrades and guardians of the magical artifact the Silver Crystal, ultimately saving the Solar System one episode at a time.