Not surprisingly another Slave Leia bashing article has surfaced on the web. This one however is in a league of it's own. Not only did they specifically target the article Entertainment Weekly did on me preparing for this year's San Diego Comic Con (as Leia) but they also featured a photo they took of me at Comic Con and went on to admit that they have taken several other pictures of me at conventions as Catwoman and Zatanna. Funny enough after confessing they have several pictures of me in multiple costumes, they go on to state that they have no clue as to who I am (even though my name and information is listed in the Entertainment Weekly article he referenced). Furthermore the individual claims they were "surprised" to see me "three years" after cosplaying Zatanna in San Diego. The humorous thing about that statement is I first wore Zatanna to a con at the 2010 Wizard World Philly show aka the Philadelphia Comic Con and wore Slave Leia to California a month later. Where do you get a three year gap when those cosplays were in fact one month apart? When one of my friends defended me in this article, Mr. Trate instantly knew she was referring to me (even though she pointed out a photo featuring two Slave Leia's) without her mentioning my name. Upon registering on the site to leave my own personal response, I found that my email account had all ready been blocked. Curious. 
Apparently Slave Leia was hot up until 2009 according to Mr. Trate. He admits he is a big fan of it. So what happened? No explanation is given. Perhaps he was snubbed or got turned down for a date by a Slave Leia model. His call on Slave Leia's to show their "creative side and do something different" leaves me asking:
"Who the hell are you?"
Almost all of the Slave Leia's have other cosplays. I myself have over ten costumes and was named the Queen of Cosplay by the Modern Tokyo Times and Axiom Magazine. You know nothing about them, Mr. Trate. You are judgemental and prejudice. At San Diego Comic Con we are HIRED TO DO A JOB and you even admitted to stopping by the Gentle Giant booth to take a photo of me (and at several other
cons).
Mr. Trate encourages Leia's to take creative liberties with the costume and praises others who have done so completely ignoring the fact that the models must mirror Carrie Fisher's look. He lists other characters women should cosplay as if we want or require his opinion. Finally, Mr. Trate attempted to reach out to me saying "his boss" had several "messages" for me stating the article was not meant to be personal. What made me howl with laughter is after getting into Lois Lane mode, I discovered that he was in fact the writer of the article and used unconvincing aliases that were easy to expose. Next time, don't pick something so obvious. Now because I work in the real world and have a respectable full time job as a teacher, naturally I didn't discover this until after I got out of work. To find that someone once again is bashing my side job is unsurprising. How funny is it that someone on the outside is trying to tell professional models how to do their job. You're not our employer thus we are not required to listen to you particularly when some of us are veteran cosplayers. Save the requests for the Gentlemen's club and stop acting like you're an authority because you're not.
"Yawn to the haters." The Slave Leia bashing is the one that's tired. I'm doing what I love, am successful in multiple fields and do not plan to stop.
EDUCATE YOURSELF MR. TRATE: http://victoriacosplay.blogspot.com/2011/08/slave-revolt.html