Mermaid Journeys - what got you here?

[Mermaid_Sarina]

Hey everyone! So I've been wondering lately how you all became Mermaids and Mermen. So I want to know how you started and stories from your childhood. I think its really inspiring to hear from people exactly how they started doing something that they love and are passionate about so I'm really excited to hear from you all.

[Mermaid_Sarina]

So for me the reason I became a Mermaid is because I have this obsessive nature, and I've had it since I was really little. The first thing I was ever obsessed with was The Little Mermaid. I used to make my parents put it on everyday for me to watch and I always wanted to be Ariel, or to be a Mermaid. It also stemmed from my love of water, I owe my mum growing up in a little beach town and swimming every day of her life because she passed that trait down to me. And then I got to grow up in a beach town meaning I was constantly at the beach or at the swimming pool my mum worked at. And the entire time I was always pretending I was a Mermaid and that I lived in this magical kingdom. And then when I was about 10-12 H2o, Just add water came out on tv and instantly I saw the tails and wanted one so badly. It was everything I had dreamed of as kid come to life and I wanted it.

I actually became a Mermaid because of this and my best friend Mermaid Leina. We went to visit my family who live at the beach town one summer and spent the entire time binge watching H2o, and we wanted to do it so badly that she ended up going home and making a tail for her sister. Then a couple of months later she asked me if I wanted to do it too and I'm sure I must have cried because I was so excited. And the rest is history! For the last year now I've been swimming as a Mermaid and living out my dreams and its been the best experience of my life.

[Luna Dreamtide]

I've been a water lover for as long as I can remember. My family is particularly unathletic, with the one sport were good at being swimming! I actually swam competitively up til I was about 13, training twice or three times a week. All through swimming lessons from little to later, I was forever being told off for swimming underwater all the time. But that's where mermaids belong!

On top of that, I am something of an artist and mermaids have frequented my sketchbooks more than any other creature since I was little. Like Mermaid Sarina, I fell in love with Disney and their Little Mermaid Ariel. In fact I once begged to Mum to let me wear the mermaid costume for one of those little photo shoots in a pop up studio at the shopping centre...

I didn't discover H2o until that summer that Mermaid Sarina and I binged watched the entire show!
I had to explore mermaids more - I wanted one of those tails...
I researched for ages until I stumbled across Mermaid Alexi Star's tutorial for a latex tail on YouTube. Then I found out about fabric tails, but being a self-conscious 16-year-old, I instead convinced my mermaid-loving little sister (Mermaid Lexi) to let me make a tail for her. She loved it and this begun my journey to turn myself and my Best friend and Mersister, Mermaid Sarina into real mermaids!

The final step begins next year when I begin making us our very first silicone tails!

[lulubelle]

I fell in love with mermaids as a small child when I was given a copy of the original Little Mermaid story. I played at it all the time, and I'm still fascinated (obviously!)

I didn't know it was a thing you could really grow up to do until a couple years ago when I met Raina. I heard of her through an appearance she was doing for World Ocean Day and I took my kids to meet her. Later I hired her for my daughter's bday, then she was also hired for my friend's bday and we've been friends ever since.

At the end of this past summer she gave me a gift and a serious push, and I made my mermaid tail and have started swimming with KayNS, who also got herself a tail this summer.

I can't wait to see where it takes me <3

[Saren]

I've been in love with swimming for as long as I can remember. Unfortunately, I never learned how to properly swim. I watched The Little Mermaid II when it came out and I loved it! I wanted to swim in the ocean with whales and turtles. When I got married and moved to Hawaii I got to do just that. I took SCUBA classes and got certified and through that I learned how to swim better, how to handle underwater emergencies, and I got to see the underwater world I love.

While in hawaii I heard about Mermaid Kariel; she just had her baby and did a newborn merbaby shoot with one of my clients. I saw her in her tail and i was amazed. I looked her up and ended up finding Melissa's website too. I watched videos for hours. I was busy with college though, and it never became anything more than a fun thing to look into. Then I moved to Japan and decided to dust off this old fancy. I ended up finding Raina and Mernetwork. And the rest is history.

[Mermaid_Sarina]

I fell in love with mermaids as a small child when I was given a copy of the original Little Mermaid story. I played at it all the time, and I'm still fascinated (obviously!)

I didn't know it was a thing you could really grow up to do until a couple years ago when I met Raina. I heard of her through an appearance she was doing for World Ocean Day and I took my kids to meet her. Later I hired her for my daughter's bday, then she was also hired for my friend's bday and we've been friends ever since.

At the end of this past summer she gave me a gift and a serious push, and I made my mermaid tail and have started swimming with KayNS, who also got herself a tail this summer.

I can't wait to see where it takes me <3

Lulubelle thats so exciting! Yay! Thanks for sharing with me

[Mermaid_Sarina]

I've been in love with swimming for as long as I can remember. Unfortunately, I never learned how to properly swim. I watched The Little Mermaid II when it came out and I loved it! I wanted to swim in the ocean with whales and turtles. When I got married and moved to Hawaii I got to do just that. I took SCUBA classes and got certified and through that I learned how to swim better, how to handle underwater emergencies, and I got to see the underwater world I love.

While in hawaii I heard about Mermaid Kariel; she just had her baby and did a newborn merbaby shoot with one of my clients. I saw her in her tail and i was amazed. I looked her up and ended up finding Melissa's website too. I watched videos for hours. I was busy with college though, and it never became anything more than a fun thing to look into. Then I moved to Japan and decided to dust off this old fancy. I ended up finding Raina and Mernetwork. And the rest is history.

Faryn thats so cool! Yay! Thanks for sharing

[saborigakusei]

My story's not the most unique out there, haha... but here goes anyway ;D

I've always lived on the coast in the south and practically spent every summer of my life at the beach. My grandparents built two beach houses in this little town too small to be attractive for tourists, and my mom would take me there all the time as a kid. The beaches were beautiful, with white sand, warm water, and a fairly good amount of shells always washed up on the beach. So obviously half the time I spent there was me pretending I was a mermaid. (of course I grew up obsessed with Ariel too haha).

It was years later before I found out about people who actually had tails. It was Christmas and my aunt's house, where we always met for the holidays, was flooded, so we went to a hotel in Myrtle Beach instead. They had an indoor mini-waterpark for kids with a lazy river and everything, as well as some hot tubs outside. It actually snowed on the beach while we were there??? I remember being in my swimsuit outside in the hot tub, catching snow in my mouth - it was amazing<333
But anyway, I loved swimming without a tube in the lazy river, but I hadn't brought any goggles with me. So I made up my first mersona - a blind mer who swam with her hand rested on the back of a manta ray who would help guide her around. After that I started writing her story and looking up various mermaid stuff and ended up finding Mertailor's videos on youtube. I wanted a tail then, but totally forgot about it until last year, when I developed a BURNING DESIRE FOR A SILICONE TAIL. And I got one. And now it's just the agony of waiting until I receive it. ^_^

[Luna Dreamtide]

My story's not the most unique out there, haha... but here goes anyway ;D

I've always lived on the coast in the south and practically spent every summer of my life at the beach. My grandparents built two beach houses in this little town too small to be attractive for tourists, and my mom would take me there all the time as a kid. The beaches were beautiful, with white sand, warm water, and a fairly good amount of shells always washed up on the beach. So obviously half the time I spent there was me pretending I was a mermaid. (of course I grew up obsessed with Ariel too haha).

It was years later before I found out about people who actually had tails. It was Christmas and my aunt's house, where we always met for the holidays, was flooded, so we went to a hotel in Myrtle Beach instead. They had an indoor mini-waterpark for kids with a lazy river and everything, as well as some hot tubs outside. It actually snowed on the beach while we were there??? I remember being in my swimsuit outside in the hot tub, catching snow in my mouth - it was amazing<333
But anyway, I loved swimming without a tube in the lazy river, but I hadn't brought any goggles with me. So I made up my first mersona - a blind mer who swam with her hand rested on the back of a manta ray who would help guide her around. After that I started writing her story and looking up various mermaid stuff and ended up finding Mertailor's videos on youtube. I wanted a tail then, but totally forgot about it until last year, when I developed a BURNING DESIRE FOR A SILICONE TAIL. And I got one. And now it's just the agony of waiting until I receive it. ^_^

I love your story. And the mersona you created is positively adorable. I'd love to hear her story

[Echidna]

I've always been a mermaid.
The first book my parents gave me as a toddler was a guide to fish species- I'm not sure how I had communicated to them I was interested in aquatic life, but I spent much of my childhood in that book.

On my first vacation at the ocean, I disappeared underwater and my parents looked for me out of their wits with fright, until I resurfaced somewhere far away safe and sound.
They told me that I would always swim underwater with wide open eyes and could only ever be removed from the ocean forcefully.
(I don't remember that too clearly, I was 2 or 3?
I taught myself to surface-swim much later only, like 8 or 9 years old.)

My family always called me little mermaid from then on, and we had this pretend-play that I was a mermaid being forced onto land, and only from time to time could she return.
That was the only way they could keep me interested while on land lol!

My entire childhood was filled with mermaid stories, books, and toys I made myself.
I painted a lot- underwater castles, marine life, mermaids, etcetc.

I also grew up with Andersen's story.
I loved the beginning, the "far, far away from any land, where the ocean is deepest...".
I would play the part where the little mermaid is underwater and ascends for the first time to see the full moon again and again.
I never was interested in the second half of the story, though.
First, I couldn't fathom why a mermaid would have any interest in land; second, her wish to turn into a human for a dude she didn't even know was beyond me.
And that part hasn't changed til today!

[Mermaid Lunette]

I actually was not obsessed with mermaids when i was a growing up actualy, i mean i liked the little mermaid, and i liked the sequeal (even more because there were more underwater scenes) and i liked the idea of mermaids but it seemed so impossible that i didnkt ever fathom of being one.

in highschool i really found my passion to just be in the water, a lot of personal stuff happened so i found solace and some of my favorite memories are of when my best friends and i would sneak into one of their apartment pools late at night and just swim. i was always the last one out of the water. however mermaids still were only something i liked to think about, not something i thought i could be.

then one day by chance i came across a video on facebook, i believe it was of iona and i realized, she purchased that tail, i realized that i could have a tail, that this thing that i never allowed myself to imagine because i just didn't think it was possible was actually within reach.

i took in all the information i could, quickly found mernetwork, and just looked up all the info on tails i could so fast i barely remember most of it (which a part of me wishes i had slowed down a bit to actually savor my first swim in my mermaid path) however i soon submerged myself into the mermaid life and never intend to look back <3

so i was definetely have always been a fan of water and mermaids, but the mermaid transformation did not actually begin until about a little over a year ago ^_^

[Mermaid_Sarina]

Thanks everyone so far you has shared their stories! Its been so cool reading them!

[Sarafin]

Oh I love this topic! I began swimming at a very young age and always used to cross my feet together to make it like a mermaid fin. I was always picked on in school for having red hair and therefore as a child was obsessed with The Little Mermaid. The pool in my backyard was my solace. Sometimes I couldn't even wait to change into my swimsuit I would just jump into the pool with my entire school uniform on! I dreamt of living near the ocean and one day being able to swim in it. Being abused as a little girl being in the water and using my imagination to go to my mermaid land got me through stuff. As I became older I started getting into making my own clothes, with a mermaid or ocean theme to it. I finally got to move to California and The ocean was just as majestic as I thought it would be. It was a healing place and I felt like I was home. I would always hang out with my girlfriends at the beach and some of my friends being professional models and performers taught me about mermaid tails. I was stuck in a dead end job working at a call center and to ease the stress of the day I would watch videos of Mermaid Melissa. Her story inspired me. It became my dream to one day perform as a professional mermaid for charity events for children and to help heal the world through something that also healed me. I love that there is a whole community of mermaids out here who also share some of the same dreams and visions. I look forward to making my own mermaid tail one day and meeting mermaids in my new home up hear near the Great Lakes

[Mermaid Galene]

My journey was kind of circular. As a child I loved to swim and just naturally preferred underwater swimming with the dolphin kick. I really believed that if I wished hard enough, I could be a mermaid. I kind of forgot about all that as I grew up and moved on to education & careers in wildlife science, music, animal training, and pro puppetry. 50+ years later, I started training fish to make music. My discovery of the amazing musicality of fish led to the birth of Neptune's Keep -- my 2 humans (my husband, Stu, and myself) + goldfish band. I've always enjoyed writing, so I began writing songs for Neptune's Keep. One of my first was The Lonely Mermaid. And I thought, "Well, I sing with fish and write mermaid songs, so I must be a mermaid!" I was looking at mermaid images on the web one day and came across one of Hannah Fraser's videos. I was stunned and thrilled by her work! Then I found Raina and was stunned and thrilled again (as well as educated by her wonderful tutorials)! The die was cast! I knew then what I wanted. It took a year or so to figure out and settle into my niche as a faerie mermaid (with my talented partner, Salty Stuart the Pirate). Now I am happy as a clam creating/performing mermaid/faerie storytime entertainment, fantasy art, and literature for kids.

And it's really true: if you wish hard enough (and much more importantly, work hard enough) anyone with a desire to be a mermaid can be!

[Mermaid Enhydrina]

These are so cool!

Hmm, well I've lived in Florida for my entire life(minus 2 years in Georgia when I was 8-10), so I grew up swimming. When my sis and I were little we would watch Splash on tape everytime we went to our grandma's house. We would also stick our feet in those pool sinker rings and pretend to be mermaids. Other than that though, I was never specifically obsessed with mers just mythical creatures in general. Anyway, I'd heard about Weeki Wachee so I guess I always knew about mermaiding but I didn't really get into it until a few years ago.
When I was about 15 I saw a news special about Mertailor and was instantly intrigued. I researched his tails to death but thought they were too exspensive so I looked up other tail makers and found the list here. After a couple months of stalking the site I finally joined and now I'm here(with a half-finished fabric tail :P).

[Mermaid Wesley]

I love mine. Because I can not remember. I'll tell you what I do know:

When I was 4, Ariel was my favorite princess. I had 4 of her dolls and knew all the songs in the movie, there's a recording on my moms camcorder of me singing with the tv in my pjs

In kindergarten, I was the best singer, so I was "randomly" selected to play Ariel in the school play. I loved it, and was awesome of course. XP

The next year, one of my classmates mom wrote her first children's book, Kid Wings, She used her sons classmates as characters. She wrote a story about me! In the story I was convinced I was a mermaid, I made myself saltwater baths, and "could feel it in my fishbones!" My parents thought I was hung up on the school play that i started in. But my class went to the beach on a field trip, and I went for a swim after I saw some dolphins and I turned into a mermaid. Suck on that imaginary book parents!

There's a lull, but I used to play mermaids in the pool with my sister, and I loved all the mermaid media I could find. I joined the swim team in high school and continued loving the ocean. Then at some point my freshman year of college, I saw a swimmable tail and Lost. My. Mind. I joined mernetwork, and designed my first tail within like a week or two. It took me a while to make it, but I did, and now I'm on my third fabric tail (remade the first one when it got old, the second one is ugly) and am fairly close to finishing my first silicone tail! I also freedive now (occasionally) and am working on my scuba cert! Mermaids are like most of my life at this point lol


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