Todd Kenreck: I sat down to talk with Holly Conrad about not only the fame that Strix as a character has now, but also how Strix has changed Holly as well.

Todd Kenreck: Is it strange for you that your character that you've loved Strix has become so iconic now that you now exist in a video game and so many people recognize that they are now doing cosplay of it themselves?

Holly Conrad: Yeah. It's really weird to me. I always encourage people to do their own cosplay of Strix. So I've seen a lot of people even be creative with her character, which I think is awesome. I just want people to make things and be creative. And if my character can inspire that, then that's rad.

Todd Kenreck: Has playing this character changed you at all because you put yourself in very ... you put yourself in situations that would stress me out.

Holly Conrad: Yeah. I think playing Strix ... Strix has such an interesting outlook on life because Strix is me before I got a lot of mental health help. So she was me when I was controlled by my anxiety. And she's going through this journey of loving herself and finding herself and learning how to cope with her anxiety. I just think it's an awesome ... for me to do that again and experience that again is just a really wonderful thing, seeing someone learn how to love themself.

Todd Kenreck: Do people not necessarily understand how much D&D can help when you're in a great group? How sometimes you unlikely friends you'll be friends for life?

Holly Conrad: I think that is ... I totally believe that. Absolutely. I think that people are starting to realize it, which is why D&D has gained so much popularity because people realize how wonderful it is. But we all realized that for a long time, but now everyone else is realizing it, which means they get to also make good friends.

Todd Kenreck: What's your friendship with all of them? Do you have different dynamics with each person?

Holly Conrad: Oh my gosh. I feel like there's a lot of similarities to how Strix treats them in the game. Anna is like a sister to me. We're super good friends. I feel like obviously Jared and I just laugh together a lot. I feel like Strix and Diath only laughed together twice. So maybe they do it more, but just not when they're facing crisis. And I think we all have aspects of our in game friendship and our real friendship, but we're all such close friends that it's just wonderful.

Todd Kenreck: Thank you Holly for being on the show. I'm Todd Kenreck. This is D&D Beyond. Thank you for watching.