The Beginning
Let’s start at the beginning.
Let’s start with introductions. Hello there! I’m Isabella, the founder and Editor in Chief of Stargrl. You’ve probably seen my chaotic videos on the internet. I’m a lifelong fan of sci-fi and fantasy, and I am obsessed with Star Wars, especially the prequels. I love cosplaying, collecting, and nerding out with other fans and I’ve been sharing my fandom online for almost ten years!
Over the years I have run multiple fandom accounts including Punch It Chewie Press, Star Wars Style, and my Isabella Amidala socials. What originally brought me into this community was a little Disney pin account I made with my husband to collect with other fans and now my entire life revolves around pop culture! To say it was a wild ride would be an understatement. Looking back on it now ten years later, it feels like everything is falling into place.
I started dating my husband, Arakel, in the summer of 2014. He introduced me to the fan communities that he was heavily involved with by bringing me along with him to my first convention, San Diego Comic Con.
I was essentially shoved off the deep end into the fandom communities of people my age, and it was both overwhelming and thrilling. It was here that I was first introduced to cosplaying and my immediate thought was, “Adults can wear costumes when it isn’t Halloween? Hell yeah!” I was so inspired and excited by the culture of cosplay that I bought my first cosplay and ran around the convention center with Arakel as Boba Fett and Huttslayer Leia. I was immediately hooked.
That same summer we started posting online about our favorite fandoms. The internet was a very different place back then. The only “influencers” were supermodels. There was no such thing as a “content creator.” We would share our pin collection, trade with other collectors, share our weekly trips to Disneyland, and post about Star Wars there.
I even encouraged my husband to share his own artwork online. That led to us making our own enamel pins, exhibiting at comic cons around the US, hosting a monthly Patreon pin club, and creating an incredible community of fellow fans.
The Star Wars community was buzzing as we geared up for The Force Awakens. In August, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge was announced! We couldn’t believe that Star Wars was getting its own theme park!
In November of 2015, Disneyland opened the Star Wars Launch Bay with the Season of the Force event, and we were there opening day!
This was the moment that created the desire for many people to create fan-lead social media accounts to post updates and blog posts about Star Wars. We went all in. I have so much fun with Punch It, but to be honest, it never really felt like “my page.”
Let’s go back a bit. As soon as I could read I was obsessed with fashion magazines. I would beg my mom in the summertime to buy me the latest issues of Nylon, InStyle, and Glamour magazine. I would pour over each page and read them multiple times. I even tore my favorite pages out and compiled them into binders. Do you see how this is all coming together?
I made an Instagram in 2011 and was immediately obsessed. I was fourteen. Are we surprised? As a creative young girl obsessed with fashion, makeup, and lifestyle content I now had 24/7 access to the content I loved so much that I previously had to wait a month for magazines.
Over the years I posted on my personal account. I would try posting fashion content here and there but let’s be honest, the kids you went to high school with don’t care.
As my husband’s artwork grew in popularity, we continued to be a part of the growing pin community in southern California. We would exhibit at different pop-up events in Los Angeles nearly every weekend. I have fond memories of this time in my life because of the incredible friends we made with fellow artists and fans.
We even decided to start organizing our own events in San Diego and started The Pin & Patch Con with one of our best friends Miguel from BB-Cre.8. We created such a special, supportive, and tight-knit community in a few short years.
At the end of 2019 I decided to create an Instagram account dedicated to Star Wars style. I would repost other creators’ cosplays, Disney bounds, and outfits (at the time Star Wars repost accounts were super popular). Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge at Disneyland had opened a few months prior so Star Wars fashion content was exploding.
I had so much fun posting on that account, making new friends, and sharing Star Wars fashion content. After a few months I slowly started sharing my own content on there which gave me the courage to start cosplaying and make my Isabella Amidala cosplay accounts!
In December of 2019 my husband and I exhibited at a convention called Empire Con. There was an exhibitor there with deadstock (brand new vintage items with tags) Star Wars tees for sale. I couldn’t believe how intricate and cool the designs were. On a complete whim I asked if she would sell them wholesale to me and she said yes! As soon as I got home I got to work opening an online boutique. I eventually expanded my products to include other vintage and secondhand Star Wars clothing and pieces for Disney bounding. I had dreamed about owning a boutique since I was a little girl so starting this small business was a dream come true.
I hosted Star Wars Style challenges throughout the years and encouraged others to participate. The more time I spent with Star Wars fashion, the more I craved it.
In December of 2020, we went to Disneyworld and got engaged!
A few weeks later, ten new Star Wars projects were announced, including The Kenobi series in which Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen would reprise their roles. I was elated! The prequel era of Star Wars is my absolute favorite corner of the galaxy and I desperately craved a creative outlet where I could share my excitement for the project. TikTok was the perfect place for that.
In January of 2021 I made a TikTok account to post about Star Wars style and my boutique. I have the TikTok community to thank for encouraging me to return to cosplaying after quarantine. Posting about my favorite fandom and making new friends during such a difficult time for me was priceless. I’d never felt comfortable sharing my true chaotic personality anywhere before TikTok and I’m so grateful that I finally let loose and had fun on there. That is why I value community so much and why it is at the core of what I want for Stargrl.
In September of 2021, I decided to make a TikTok account dedicated to my own personal fandom content. That decision changed my life. I was going through a lot of things emotionally and felt lost. This account became my safe haven.
In October of 2021, I finally had the courage to return to the world of cosplaying thanks to the community I had built on TikTok. My love for fashion and fandom had converged at last.
In November of 2021, Punch It Chewie Press exhibited at San Diego Comic Con Special Edition. This was one of the first conventions we did after quarantine and it meant so much to us mentally to slowly start to see a return to “normal” life. I even brought along my Star Wars Style boutique and it was a hit!
In January of 2022, my husband and I started our own weekly comedy podcast centered around Star Wars and pop culture. We had so many thoughts and opinions that we wanted to share and after noticing the increasing popularity for something that really brought members of a community together, we decided to just go for it! One of our best friends, Silva, and Arakel’s little brother, Arek, joined our podcast team not long after, and hosting this weekly show has been so much fun!
May was a huge month for us. I turned 25, Star Wars turned 45, Attack of the Clones turned 20, and we attended Star Wars Celebration Anaheim. I built my first cosplay from scratch with the help of my mother-in-law.
This was one of the best trips of my life. I had an incredible time meeting so many fans that I had been friends with for years. After years of waiting, the Kenobi series premiered that weekend. It was such a special time in the fandom and I will cherish those memories for the rest of my life.
In the summer of 2022, my husband checked a lifelong goal off of his bucket list. We exhibited our artwork at the first official San Diego Comic Con to return after quarantine! Of course we had to bring our brothers BB-Cre.8 along with us.
It felt so fulfilling to create art for a living and pour into the different areas of our community. It was here where we were introduced to Katherine, a wonderful Star Wars fan who loves cosplaying, donating her time to multiple charitable causes, and being a part of the Star Wars Legends community. She decided to start a fan run convention to celebrate this particular niche in the fandom with a positive and welcoming event the following year. We were so excited to contribute to the event as part of their art team. Once again, community was at the forefront of what we were doing.
The following months absolutely flew by as we prepared for our wedding. We were also preparing for Legends Con. In January, we participated in a huge collaborative cosplay photoshoot to help promote the con!
After nine years of dating, I married my high school sweetheart. Of course we included our favorite fandom in our special day - stay tuned for an entire blog post dedicated to our wedding!
In a few short years I had grown my Star Wars Style account to just under 10,000 followers. Then, in July of 2023 my account was permanently banned.
I had no idea what was happening. It came as a complete surprise to me. Instagram had recently changed their terms and conditions and reposting content was changed to be considered against the guidelines. It was devastating because my entire account was just gone. My community was gone. I couldn’t even make a new account and refollow everyone. I was completely shut out.
It hurt even more that I couldn't just make another account. It would always have the potential to be deleted and repost pages were kinda fading out. So I decided to dive headfirst into my cosplay account instead. I just said fuck it and started posting like people already cared (which they absolutely didn't).
A few weeks later, the much needed SAG-AFTRA strike halted the film industry. This movement paused production industry-wide to fight for new work contracts that ensured protection for actors and crew members against being replaced by AI. I understood the importance of solidarity through this and happily complied, but once again, I felt shut off from my community. We couldn’t talk about our favorite shows that were currently airing. We couldn’t share the cosplays we had been working so hard on. We couldn’t talk about the stories that meant so much to us. This was a very difficult time for me creatively. I just missed creating fun content and interacting with the community so much.
I became *delulu* with my goals in August but it was what inspired me to go all in creating my own fashion content. Trying to keep up with all the socials for Punch It, Star Wars Style, and Isabella Amidala had left me very overwhelmed and unsure of what content to make and which account to post it on. With SWS no longer in the picture, I was able to funnel all of my creativity into creating 40+ Dressing Like videos.
That series is what really made my account grow and gave me the opportunity to work with so many amazing brands that I had always looked up to like Hot Topic, Her Universe, Loungefly, LEGO, and Heroes & Villains.
At the beginning of September, we helped host Legends Con! After many months of the blood, sweat, and tears and tireless work by the entire team behind Legends Con, our event came to life. It was an absolutely incredible weekend. Being surrounded by so many other positive and passionate fans was truly so special. I made so many new friends that weekend and this convention reminded me the importance of creating safe spaces for fandom communities to enjoy.
In October of 2023, I received an absolute dream collaboration with Hasbro. They wanted to send me a box full of goodies to help promote the Ahsoka Series on Disney+. I could not have been more excited. Ahsoka is one of my all time favorite characters and I had been collecting Star Wars merch for most of my life. I knew my following would be just as excited as I was.
I posted a one minute video on both Instagram and TikTok unboxing the toys. Then the toxic side of the fandom got a hold of my video on Twitter and ran with it. A YouTuber then decided to make an entire video mocking my content, the way I looked and acted, and said that I was not a real fan. His video encouraged his following to comment similar aggressive comments, including a joke about killing me, and the creator of the video liked it. I decided to ignore him, to not give him the attention he so desperately wanted.
A few weeks passed and the tension and hostility in the fandom towards women only continued to grow. Once someone commented that this was “manufactured ‘hatred’ by ‘fans’ to start a pointless conversation that doesn’t exist” I could no longer keep my mouth shut. So I posted this video.
The outpouring of love I received was unbelievable. My response video received over 300,000 views. Hundreds of people showed up in the comments with their support. Star Wars even reached out to check on me and share kind words of encouragement.
A few days later, my video was deleted by Instagram. Unsurprisingly, there was no word or explanation as to why. I was silenced again.
This was the final push I needed to say fuck it and create a place online where I would not be belittled, silenced, or told that I didn’t belong in my favorite fandom. This platform didn’t exist, so I created it January 4, 2024 and Stargrl was born.
As I was writing this blog post on January 9th, my main Instagram account was permanently deleted by Instagram. Once again, with no warning and for no reason. There is no one to contact to try to resolve this decision that was obviously a mistake. Meta no longer has people working in its help department; everything is now run by AI.
It looks like I made the right decision to start Stargrl.
I have been so blessed to be able to turn a lifelong hobby of mine into my job. I still can’t believe this is my life. Whether you’ve been following me since my pin trading days or you just found me through this magazine, THANK YOU SO MUCH! <3
I'm a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. I never would have started this magazine if things didn’t happen the way they did. “Sometimes things have to fall apart, so that better things can come together.”
I hope that reading my story reminds you that you deserve to be happy, you deserve to take up space, and that you deserve to follow your dreams. It’s been a long journey, but I know that this is just the beginning. Welcome to Stargrl.