The Virtual Artist Alley: Geeky Etsy Shops & Small Businesses

If you haven’t heard of OWLS before, it stands for Otaku Warrior for Liberty and Self-Respect. We are a group of content creators promoting the acceptance of everyone regardless of their disabilities, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and religion. Each month with the help of pop culture, literature, and other forms of media, we explore real-world topics through these online tours, sharing personal experiences and analyzing pop culture.

If you want to know more about OWLS, you can take a look at the blog here.

This year has been full of cancelled plans: vacations, weddings, graduations, concerts, and even *gasp* anime conventions. OWLS has been playing around with the idea of a virtual convention and honestly, I think we couldn’t have chosen a better time to put on The Mini CONmmunity: Anime is Never Cancelled. May I present to you my humble contribution of The Virtual Artist Alley which features some of my most favorite Etsy shops and small businesses that specialize in all things geeky including several Black-owned, women-owned, and Black women-owned small businesses!

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Living Life Through Animal Crossing [OWLS Hope Tour]

If you haven’t heard of OWLS before, it stands for Otaku Warrior for Liberty and Self-Respect. We are a group of content creators promoting the acceptance of everyone regardless of their disabilities, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and religion. Each month with the help of pop culture, literature, and other forms of media, we explore real-world topics through these online tours, sharing personal experiences and analyzing pop culture.

If you want to know more about OWLS, you can take a look at the blog here.

If you had told me that I would be working from home self isolating for what could be almost half the year back in January, I wouldn’t have believed you. I had so much to look forward to: Animal Crossing in March, a BTS concert in June, seeing family and friends for holidays… Even going thrift shopping has been cancelled as we all try to stay inside for everyone’s health. But that’s exactly what happened. Plans were cancelled. Life feels cancelled, but at least I still had Animal Crossing to look forward to in March… A light in the darkness for most gamers and “non-gamers” alike.

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Building a Healthy Romance in Anime [OWLS Devotion Tour]

If you haven’t heard of OWLS before, it stands for Otaku Warrior for Liberty and Self-Respect. We are a group of content creators promoting the acceptance of everyone regardless of their disabilities, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and religion. Each month with the help of pop culture, literature, and other forms of media, we explore real-world topics through these online tours, sharing personal experiences and analyzing pop culture.

If you want to know more about OWLS, you can take a look at the blog here.

When I think about some of my favorite anime couples, there’s not many that come to mind that seem healthy or realistic. Usually we have the ‘love is complicated’ couples that fall head over heels for each other quickly but deal with a lot of miscommunication and drama. We have the ‘will they, won’t they?’ couples that sometimes take an entire season to confess that they like each other which has some viewers (me) ripping their hair out in frustration. We have the couples that present one side as heavily devoted while the other is unaware or aloof. Sometimes we have a combination of different types, but mostly I hardly ever see a healthy romance play out, because it just doesn’t make for entertaining episodes to keep audiences coming back.

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