Be a Furry

The furry fandom is a large, welcoming place for people to express creativity and a passion for anthropomorphic animals. If you believe you are interested in the furry community, you have nothing to be embarrassed about. This article will guide you through the process of becoming an avid and well-respected furry.

Steps

Determining If the Furry Fandom Is Right for You

1. Know what the furry fandom is. There are many videos on YouTube explaining what the furry fandom is. An especially good one is "The Furries of Anthrocon" by NBC. In short, though, the furry fandom is a group of people of varying backgrounds that simply enjoy anthropomorphic animals (a good example would be the animals in Zootopia).
2. Consider your interests and how they tie into the furry community. The group is centered around anthropomorphic animals, which are animals with human characteristics. Even if you simply enjoy the concept of werewolves, you may find your calling in this community. If you dislike anthropomorphic animals, think they're childish and silly, or don't like animals at all, you may not enjoy the furry community.
3. Decide if you enjoy the people within the community. There are many sub-groups within the furry fandom and you can probably find your own group of friends that have the same types of attitudes and interests as you. However, most of the community is supportive and interactive toward each other. There is a strong connection between most furries, as they all have a common interest that defines a lot of who they are as people.
4. Understand that furry is not a sexuality nor a fetish. While some furries like to merge their sexual interests with the artwork and literature they create within the furry fandom, by no means does being a furry mean you have to enjoy the sexual side of the fandom. Many furries enjoy creating and participating in the fandom in a completely family-friendly way, and many who enjoy the sexual side often also enjoy PG furry artwork.
5. Decide if you want to be a furry. If you want to create your own furry characters or enjoy wearing and roleplaying (in usually the most innocent of ways) in animal costumes like fursuits, your best bet will be to join the furry community. However, it is completely up to you if you want to join the community or not.
   • Even if you don't have a strong interest in anthropomorphic animals, if you want to join the community, the people within it will likely welcome you with open arms. On the same note, just because you like anthropomorphic animals a lot doesn't mean you are automatically a furry. That is completely up to you, and there is nothing forcing you to call yourself a furry or participate in the community.

Making a Fursona

1. Understand that the grand majority of furries have a fursona. Creating one is technically optional but is recommended. Fursonas are fictional characters made to represent you.
2. Pick a species. Many furries choose canines, felines, and dragons. However, you are not limited at all in your fursona species of choice. You can make birds, hybrids, and even made-up species such as Dutch Angel Dragons. If you want, you can even make your own. There are no rules at all when picking a fursona's species.
3. Pick out colors and markings. The colors are completely up to you. It would benefit you to try your best to make the character look good. Bright, oversaturated neon colors can hurt people's eyes. However, feel free to design your fursona however you want. If neon colors are truly your thing, go for it. If you prefer completely natural colors, use them! Like with the species, there are no rules with colors and markings except...
4. Make sure you aren't copying other people's fursonas. If your character has a lot of similar unique features to another fursona, you should change them to something else. Fursonas are very close to people's hearts, and stealing them is not only unoriginal, but it can also get you in big trouble. It's okay to be inspired by other fursonas, but don't outright steal the character just because you like it.
5. Draw out your fursona. If you can't draw too well, consider paying another artist some money to draw your fursona. You can also use free-to-use bases by looking up "Free [animal] base" or "Free [animal] lineart" on deviantART or FurAffinity. These are free templates that you can color as a way to show others what your fursona looks like.
   • Don't just take images from the internet and say that it's your fursona. Those are other people's fursonas and often times, people have paid money to have those images drawn for them. It's considered art theft, and you can get in trouble for doing it!
   • Never claim to have drawn a free base. Always mention the person who made the base in the descriptions of the places you post it, and never say you drew it because you did not. You colored it, but an artist put time and effort into making the base for you to color.

Visiting Furry Websites and Joining Furry Communities

1. Participate in online furry groups. Most furry activity happens on the internet, and there are many websites to join within the furry community, like Furry Amino (mobile app) and FurAffinity. However, there are other places to hop into the furry community. /r/furry on Reddit is a very active subreddit and it is easy to start getting involved in discussions there. There are also many furry Discord servers, Skype groups, and Telegram groups for instant messaging. (There is a sizable list of them on /r/furry.)
2. Check out places on other platforms to post about furry-related things. Tumblr, FurAffinity, and deviantART are great places to post artwork, literature, and other furry content. You can also talk to other furries on those sites and develop friendships over time with other furries that carry over onto other platforms.
3. Get involved in local furry groups. Many locales have their own furry groups. You can often look up "[your area] Furries" to find people near you who may be in the furry fandom. You can also check out the Globe feature on Furry Amino to find furries near you and start up a chat.
   • Be careful with meetups. Like with any community, meeting up with people online can be dangerous. Use common sense, and don't meet in secluded areas like their house or a hotel room. Many furries opt to meet up at conventions, as it is a safe environment to be in and you are free to fully express yourself in the con space.
4. Attend furry conventions. One of the best ways to get involved in the furry community is by attending furry conventions. The biggest furry convention in the world is Anthrocon, a US-based convention in Pittsburgh which had over 7,300 attendees in 2016. These conventions are fun places where furries can meet up, talk, socialize, and visit many events that happen there.
   • There are vendors that sell artwork, tails, accessories, badges, fursuits, and much more. In many conventions, there are also spectator-friendly fursuit games, fursuit dance competitions, fursuit floor wars, concerts, and many more special events that vary from convention to convention. Most top it off with a massive fursuit parade in which almost all of the fursuiters that attend the convention march along a path. Even if you don't have a suit, you can still watch all the fursuits march by. You can watch many of these events on YouTube if you are curious to see what happens during them.

Starting up Fursuiting

1. Know that not all furries have fursuits. That is a wild misconception, and the fact is, less than a third of furries actually have fursuits at all, and not everyone even wants or likes fursuits. However, it is a staple of the fandom. They are very fun to most furries and are very entertaining for non-furries. If you want to get a fursuit, though, you'll need to save up quite a bit as the price tags on them usually start at $1,000 and up. ($2,000 and up for full-body suits!)
   • If you don't want to get a fursuit, you can skip this part, but if you are interested in getting a fursuit, read on!
2. Learn to act in a fursuit. Fursuiters usually put a lot of time and energy into making their fursuited character come to life. They give their character personality, and the whole time they're in their fursuit is a performance. There are many panels you can watch about that teach you how to act in fursuit. You can look up "Fursuiting 101" and find many panels that walk you through the basics of performing in costume.
3. Make sure you are financially prepared to buy a fursuit. These suits are a luxury and should not be put before your needs for food, water, hygiene, and shelter. Put aside money to save for a fursuit, but if you are in a financial crisis, your health and living conditions are much more important than a fursuit. You do not need a fursuit!
4. Try to find a handler. If you're only planning to wear your suit at conventions, at furry parties, or in an otherwise secure place, this may not be important for you. However, if you are planning to fursuit in public where most people aren't familiar with fursuits/fursuiters, you will most definitely need a handler.
   • You will need someone in real life who can help you out when fursuiting. There needs to be someone with you at all times when fursuiting who can help you watch out for problem people (rough teenagers and dirty or rowdy kids especially!) and can speak for you if you are a silent fursuiter. These people will be your eyes and ears as your senses are very muffled in fursuit, and will help you get out of problem situations and aid you in getting to a private area if you are overheating. Heatstroke is very dangerous, and nobody really likes it.
5. Decide what kind of fursuit you want.
   • Partial Fursuits: These are fursuits that come with a head, hands, feet, and a tail. They are minimal and are meant to be worn with clothes to make it appear that the character is the one wearing the clothes. These are great for people who overheat easily, as they are easy to take off, are much more insulated considering there is less fur covering you, and have no extra padding.
   • Plantigrade fursuit: These costumes cover your full body. They are easier to overheat in and harder to get out of, but they show off all the markings of your character and make the suit look more like a character. The feet are flat, with the ankle being angled 90-degrees (like a regular human foot).
   • Digitigrade fursuit: These costumes cover your full body, but also have extra padding on the legs to make them look more animal-like. When done well, these suits can completely pull off the illusion of actually being a character, and make the character really come to life. Digitigrade feet resemble animal feet (they look like an animal's back legs when it's standing).
6. Decide which character you want to be made into a fursuit. If you only have one character, this part will be easy, but if you have multiple ones, spend time deciding which one you want to get as a fursuit. Make sure it is a character you enjoy and that you think would look good as a costume.
   • Make sure that character has at least a 3-view reference sheet either drawn by you, colored on a base, or commissioned by a reference sheet artist. It's extremely rare for fursuit makers to make you a fursuit without a reference sheet.
7. Decide on a maker. There are hundreds of fursuit makers to choose from, each with their own style. You can find a large portion of them on the Makers Database.
   • Keep in mind whether or not the makers are open. Fursuit makers often only open 1-4 times a year, and when they do, they do not accept every order. Turnaround time for fursuit makers is usually a few months, so don't expect a fursuit to be shipped to you within a few days of ordering it.
   • Also, keep in mind their prices and terms of service. Many makers do not work with people under the age of 18, and most require a 30% down payment up front. (Not all of them require that, so check their websites!) Read through and understand what you are signing up for when you plan to commission them.
   • Decide on other options for makers. If you love a certain maker's work, but they haven't made a single fursuit in a year or two and look inactive, you may have a hard time commissioning them. Look through the Makers Database to find other options in case your first choice doesn't quite work out.
   • Check the maker's reviews (if they have any) on FursuitReview.com to get an idea of who you're dealing with. A few makers are great at making fursuits but have bad communication and miss details on characters. It's better to know this before you decide to commission them than after.
8. Commission a maker. Make sure the maker is open for commissions, then follow their instructions on their website to commission them. Make sure you are financially able to pay them and have read through their terms first.
   • The process is slightly different depending on the maker, but for most, you'll have to submit your character reference sheet and the details of what kind of suit you want through a form on their website.
   • Don't get upset if you don't hear back or weren't picked. Fursuit makers often get many commission requests, so they can't take every single one. Just wait for the next opening or wait for another maker to open.

Getting Active in the Community

1. Discover your interests and start being active in them. There's a place for every interest in the furry fandom. Artists, musicians, authors, dancers, comedians, actors, and many other creative people come together to celebrate animal anthropomorphism. Find some things you enjoy within the furry community and either start up that hobby or learn more about it.
2. Make some friends. This can sound like a daunting task, but furries can often be some of the easiest people to talk to and make friends with. Furries who comment on your posts or whose posts you comment on and furries with similar specific interests as you are some types of people you can start making friends with. Sometimes, a furry is open to simply chatting with you randomly, and over time you may develop a friendship. The more active you are in the community, the more friends you will make.
3. Know the prominent members of the community and find inspiration. While you don't need to like every popular furry out there, it helps to at least know a few of the more well-known members of the fandom such as Uncle Kage (President of Anthrocon) and Ino/Telephone (founder of Dutch Angel Dragons and an actor). You can search for great artists within the fandom of all types and find people who inspire you.
4. Open for requests or trades. No matter what creative work you do, spreading the love by offering requests and/or art trades can help people get to know you and your work.
   • Opening for requests means you are allowing people to ask you for free creative work. Users may send you an image or written description of their character for you to draw or give a premise for a story. You're free to accept or deny requests, and you should not feel obligated to complete them, as they are free gifts.
   • Opening for trades means someone can ask you for a request, and in return, you can ask them for a request. There is a mutual agreement that each party will make something for the other. Unlike requests, you are obligated to complete a trade since they are giving you something with the expectation of getting something in return and vice versa. Do not accept a trade without doing your part.
5. Open for commissions. This means that you are offering to sell your work to others. Someone can give you money (either a set price or on a price quote basis) for something you made for them. Once you develop your skill, you can even make a living off selling your work exclusively within the furry fandom. Your work is great for both you as a content creator and the people commissioning you. Be warned that there are complete obligations, and you can get in legal trouble if you do not finish a commission - by accepting payment and not finishing, you are unintentionally scamming someone.
   • Set up a price page. You can ask other furries for help in pricing your work if you're not sure how much it should cost. Take into consideration how long you spend on each piece, and specify different styles. For example, a bust icon of someone's fursona with no shading would cost much less than a full-body drawing with lighting and shading.
   • Set up an info page. This will let them know if they are allowed to request changes after the commission is done, if the commission may be streamed, if you have refund policies, whether they pay before or after, and any other important information about your commissions.
   • Inform others about your commissions. You can post on Furry Amino, leave a link to your price page on your profile, and mention them in furry chats that allow advertising.

Tips

• There is a lot of information about everything here on the internet. Feel free to dig deeper into anything listed above to find more information about it. Be careful of your sources though, as a lot of news media demonizes furries as simply sexual deviants.
• Don't expect random people to know what furries are. You can try to educate them, but they may not get it right away or even at all.
• Be careful when interacting with the media. Some journalists are out to paint furries as sexual deviants or inhuman. Uncle Kage's Furries and the Media is a great panel on YouTube explaining how the media works and how to interact with it.
• When performing in fursuit, try your best to maintain a character that matches your fursuit. Does your fursuit have a grumpy expression? Stomping around and looking comically irritable could really help your act. Are your fursuit eyes huge and cute? Act like a puppy or kitten and use more cutesy movements.
• Try not to just stand around in fursuit. When fursuiting, you are performing, so don't give a dull performance.

Warnings

• Even if you are a furry, you should still be able to maintain a healthy lifestyle. If you're having issues functioning at your job, managing relationships, or living normally because of an obsession with furry media, you should limit how much you let being a furry dominate your life. It's a fun hobby, but it should never get in the way of your normal life.
• You may not want to tell people right away that you are a furry unless you know they're okay with it. Many people (especially parents) believe misconceptions about furries that may affect how they see you after you tell them. Be careful about who you're open with, and try to find out if they dislike furries before you actually tell them you are one to avoid a conflict.
• If you are a younger furry (under 18) think twice about buying a fursuit. It's a massive investment, and you do not want to grow out of a suit you saved up a couple thousand dollars for.
• You might want to try on another furry's fursuit (granted it's clean!) before you invest in your own. Fursuits can surpass 100° Fahrenheit within just a few minutes. They can also be very bulky, especially on digitigrade suits. Not every furry is built for fursuiting, although over time many can build up a tolerance after fursuiting often.
• Study up on Fursuiting 101 panels before getting a fursuit, no matter what. There's important safety information within them that you'll need to know if you plan to fursuit at a con or in public.
• Always take your fursuit head off if an authority figure (such as a police officer or security guard) approaches you! Never ever put your act above responding to authorities.
• Take breaks in secluded areas with your head off every once in a while to cool off, drink some water, talk with your handler, and handle anything you need to do before going out again. The amount of time differs from person to person, but in general, you should take a headless break every 15-30 minutes if you're able. Some can go an hour, some can only go ten minutes, so explore how long you're able to comfortably go without a headless break.
• Make sure you know how long you can usually fursuit without getting uncomfortable. Some furries can only fursuit for an hour before getting too tired or warm to continue, other furries can last several. There's nothing wrong with calling it a day or taking a break from fursuiting for a few hours. Everyone has limits, know yours and let your handler know in case you start overexerting yourself.
• Be wise about where you're fursuiting and know the mask laws in your area. At cons, it's universally okay to wear your suit. However, there's a reason there are no furry conventions in New York City -- there are strict mask laws, and you can and will get problem people. If you live in a city (besides Pittsburgh, as most of that city is friendly with the furry fandom due to Anthrocon) you may want to think twice about fursuiting.
• Call in advance if you plan to fursuit in a privately owned place. Most random people won't know that you're just a fursuiter having fun, and masks are not inviting to store security. There's no reason to fursuit at a store besides maybe a pet supply store (which, if you have the right type of character for your fursuit, may welcome your presence). However, always call in advance even to PetSmart or Petco. Want to fursuit at the mall? Call mall security in advance. You must get clearance before you randomly decide to fursuit, as you look like a mascot for a brand. Take no for an answer if they give it to you, and don't argue with security.
• Make sure your handler knows what they're doing. If they've never handled a fursuiter before, have them watch a Handler 101 panel or two on YouTube.
• Work out signs with your handler if you don't talk. Most fursuiters are silent, and if you are too, you should work out hand signals with your handler. Some signals are universal, like fanning your head with your hands meaning "I'm hot and need to take a break."
• Stay hydrated. You can dehydrate very quickly in a fursuit, so make sure you drink plenty of water. Fursuit mouths are open so you can breathe and drink through them, but if you're concerned about damaging the mouth, you can use a long straw.
• Wash your suit as soon as possible after every single fursuiting session. You will sweat and sweat in your fursuit, and by the end of your session, it may very well be soggy from sweating. You do not want your suit growing bacteria, as it's gross and definitely unhealthy. Wash your suit (including the head!) and wash it well. There are plenty of tutorials on YouTube about how to wash your suit, but check with your fursuit maker for instructions.
• Never, ever wash your suit with any amount of heat. Always use cold water. You will destroy your fursuit if you use heat, as the fur fibers will melt.
• Deep clean your fursuit head once in a while. This is an extra long cleaning session meant to completely sanitize the head from anything that might be deeply embedded inside it. Check with your fursuit maker for more direct instructions, but general tutorials for deep cleaning your fursuit head can be found on YouTube.
• Be careful not to rip out any fur fibers when you brush your fursuit. Fursuits do not grow their fur back, so if you rip out fur fibers, they are gone forever.

Sources and Citations

• http://en.wikifur.com/wiki/Anthrocon
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj04f0CHslE (Anthrocon 2016 - Fursuiting 101 Panel with Gale Frostbane)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHZ9SwTk2UE (Furries Of Anthrocon: Beneath The Fursuit | NBC News)