here was a time not so many years ago when ABDL products in Europe seemed unattainable and mysterious. Fast forward to today, where the hands of ABDL friendship reach across the Atlantic ocean with warm familiarity. Brands from companies like Tena, Crinklz, KIDDO, and NRU are now easily found in the United States. At the same time, American and Canadian brands like Tykables, ABU, Rearz, and - to be announced soon - XPMedical, are immensely popular and also easy to buy in Europe.

But how did this partnership come to be?

CWIS: Next year the event will move - it plans to stay within Pennsylvania, but will relocate to a new city. What was the rationale behind that decision? What do you hope that the new city/venue will offer that was unavailable in the old?

TC: After seven years at our previous location, we outgrew it! We needed to find a larger event space that would give us the ability to have the event we had been dreaming about. That space did not exist in the Allentown area. To accommodate a group our size, we expanded our search and landed in Scranton! It is a larger hotel, with bigger event space and wonderful amenities. Scranton is also a delightful city with LOTS of attractions to entertain everyone! There is an aquarium and lots of trains, and of course, the birthplace of The Office!!

CWIS: Tell us a little bit about your team? Who’s behind ABU besides Casey?

CASEY: How much time have you got?! I think I could easily dictate a book on how proud of our team I am. We have a family of really passionate littles from all around the world. Not only does our team work their padded little buts off for ABU, but they’re also involved in their local communities. Whether it’s supporting the local munch or working to bring about a first ABDL Con in their home countries, I’m very proud of everyone’s spirited contributions!

‘Con drop’ is real.

Con drop is that feeling of angst we get when we realize we’re leaving a place where we truly fit in for once, and returning to... real life.

We wait our whole lives for the kind of cameraderie we achieve at events like CAPCON. A place where being little, being different, or even being ‘weird’ feels completely natural.

At Con we can run around in diapers, a onesie, or a footed sleeper, and nobody bats an eye.

We begin to feel comfortable in our own skin - and the diapers that cover it. For some of us attending for the first time, it’s the first time we’ll feel that.

Once the con organizers start taking down those barriers, the fun is coming to a close. Real life is tearing its ugly head once again. So we go back to real life, and what we know as ‘con drop’.

It’s a stark contradiction, two things you typically don’t expect to see together: diapers and body art. Diapers, of course, tend to symbolize infancy. Innocence.

And tattoos? For many, they signify the opposite.

Taken together, however, the contrast of something so innocent and something so edgy proves irresistible to many of us.