Mermaids

A 25-year-old makes a living by swimming underwater like Ariel.

16:36 23 February 2016

Melanie Long, a 25-year-old who grew up idolizing Disney princess Ariel, is making a career out of being a real life mermaid.

 

The flame-haired grew up with her bedroom walls with pictures of the princess, telling everyone that one day she’d be The Little Mermaid.

 

In 2011, she moved to Phuket in Thailand and worked as a scuba diving instructor. She then booked a gig for a Thai children’s charity that was looking for models to dress as mermaids at a gala ball.

 

She said: "When I was a kid, whenever people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would always say The Little Mermaid.

 

"Being a ginger kid you're open to ridicule and the only hero or princess that we, the ginger people, had to look up to was Ariel.

 

"It wasn't something I had ever actively pursued because I never thought it would be a possibility.

 

"So I got into scuba diving thinking that would be as close as I could get to become The Little Mermaid."

 

She added: "After a bit of research I realised that there is an entire community of mer-people and looked into making this into something I could make money out of.

 

"Working as a diver you could earn anything between £20 and £80 for a full day of work but being a mermaid was much better paid. It's a dream job.

 

"I eventually started a mermaid pod where I would train other girls to swim like a mermaid and hold their breath underwater.

 

"It got quite lucrative. I suppose you could say that I've been a pretty busy mermaid."

 

Melanie is able to swim up to 85 metres under water without coming to the surface for air.