Meet Asta Young in Mesa

Today we’d like to introduce you to Asta Young.

Asta, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I am a 4 ft. 5 artist and cosplayer based out of Mesa, AZ. I was born in Hong Kong and moved out to the United States back in 2009 from Shanghai. I’ve been an artist my entire life focusing on acrylic paintings. I hav+e always been a nerd, and I and my husband own 3 pugs. So, a lot of my paintings have pop culture influences and pug influences as well. I have always believed art can be defined in many different ways. From my love of nerd culture and art, I also discovered cosplaying back in 2014. This opened many doors for both my cosplay work and also my paintings. Cosplaying has brought out the extra confidence I needed in my life while allowing me to be creative with my craft. Growing up with dwarfism, I was bullied a lot, and painting became a way of escape for me to let myself go creatively.

When I started cosplaying back in 2014, I remember one day I was really excited and proud of the costume that I have created. I uploaded a picture of it online and it went viral overnight. This landed me interviews, guest spots at comicons, and my husband and I winded up on the reality TV show Little Women Dallas on lifetime.

Painting and cosplaying are both my passions and I love how I could incorporate both into my world now.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It hasn’t been a smooth road at all. It has never been easy to get to where I am now. Art and cosplay supplies aren’t cheap, and sometimes you have to remind yourself that you can do this because you love it, and to keep pushing forward.

Some other struggles include dealing with negativity and comments on social media regarding my cosplay work. Being a little person, there will always be people that stare. There will always be people that judge, and sometimes people judge without even looking at what you have to offer.

Asta Young – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
My name is Asta Young and that is my brand. This incorporates my cosplay and paintings. I specialize in painting pugs and geek fandom using acrylic paint. This includes canvas paintings, shoes, and murals! Growing up I also incorporated a lot of my shortness into my artwork. With cosplay, I specialize in creating costumes from fabric, PVC pipes, EVA foam, and all sorts of materials that you would never think of. What I am most proud of is being able to express myself as an individual through my costume work and through my paintings. I love being able to take ideas (no matter how weird) and turn it into reality. What sets me apart from others in my work is that I tend to mix different ideas together in my paintings. For example, I have paintings of Yoda dressed as Luigi, Grumpy cat dressed as Harry Potter, and even a Fear and Loathing pug rendition. As far as cosplaying, what sets me apart is my height. There aren’t many little people cosplayers out there. I want to constantly remind others that no matter what height, size, gender, age, race you are, you can cosplay as whoever you want to be.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
The proudest moment of my career would be when I am able to incorporate my art and my cosplay into the same world. This one year at Comicon, I had a booth, and it felt great being able to dress in cosplay and make a name out of myself. It also felt great that people aren’t just there for my cosplay work, but also for my artwork. I remember I was selling originals and I even sold one to Aaron Goodwin from Ghost Adventures.

Another proud moment was when I got invited for the very first time as a cosplay guest at Phoenix Fan Fusion. It was such an exhilarating experience. I’ve been attending for years as an attendee and to finally be invited as an official guest at my home con felt so great. I met so many amazingly talented people and it was fun being able to share my cosplay and artwork with everyone.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.astayoung.com
• Email: astayoungart@gmail.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/astayoung
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/astayoungart
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/astayoungg

Image Credit:
Ty Goossen

Getting in touch: VoyagePhoenix is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.