The First Time: Visiting Madame Tussauds

The First Time is a series where our writers share about their first time trying a new product or experience.

It was a hot December day in Sydney, Australia, and my family and I had already seen the Opera House and taken pictures on the front steps. 

The endless walking had affected my energy, and I was less excited about viewing tourist attractions as we strolled into the waiting line for Madame Tussauds. We didn’t wait for long since we had already purchased our tickets. I thought we were about to go through the same exhausting cycle of sightseeing, but as we got closer to the building I noticed that the entrance was darker than the outside surroundings. Something was up. 

Once our tickets were scanned and ready to go, we walked through and saw a few mannequins dressed up with glitter and lights. Personally, I didn’t like the style, but it caught my attention, and as I walked deeper into Madame Tussauds, all my feelings of tiredness slipped away.

I saw another mannequin, this time dressed differently. It looked like someone I had seen before. I wasn’t sure who, but I was beginning to get excited. I thought to myself, What if these mannequins were of people I recognized? A few more steps into the building I realized exactly what Madame Tussauds was. I felt a rush as I took in what I was seeing and I couldn’t help but smile from ear to ear.

As my family and I kept walking through Madame Tussauds, my mind quickly went back to my history classes as I saw the mannequins of famous people like Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Albert Einstein, Queen Elizabeth, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, and more. 

There wasn’t a moment I felt exhausted as we walked through Tussauds. It was all the more fun for me when I saw the catwalk and the changing room for fashion models. It struck a chord for me due to my background in sewing and my hope to learn more about fashion studies in the future. I also saw a deeper layer of my aunts’ personalities as I took pictures of them posing under the Cosmopolitan banner. 

We eagerly continued into Tussauds, where we saw mannequins of Avengers, Star-Wars characters, Spiderman, the Flash, and more. I saw a Food Network show setup and got my share of fame as I pretended to roll dough on the wooden board. 

The thrill didn’t end as we continued walking through Tussauds, posing with Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Barack Obama, and Liam and Chris Hemsworth. I kept hoping to see Benedict Cumberbatch but couldn’t find him until we entered the last gallery. We laughed and we danced, and when it was time to move on through a door, I wanted to go back to the entrance and experience it all over again. 

The experience might have been over, but in my heart it wasn’t as I replayed the memories in my mind while looking at the pictures we had taken as a family. My family and I had lots of fun at Madame Tussauds, looking at the mannequins and taking pictures. We took pictures of us smiling, singing, posing, and laughing, and even videos of us dancing. It was a memory to treasure, an experience to remember, and a piece of my heart to share.