Two Little Mermaids: Disney-obsessed girlfriends have grown silicone tails and swim with sharks
Two friends turned their passion for Walt Disney's The Little Mermaid cartoon into a lifestyle and career. As a child, 26-year-old Jessica Bell and 30-year-old Amelia Lassetter from Australia watched the cartoon endlessly and dreamed of becoming Princess Ariel themselves. Now the couple, who are known as Mermaid Jess and Mermaid Amelia, perform on local beaches and swim in pools with sharks and rays in 15-kilogram silicone tails worth two thousand dollars.
(13 photos in total)
Jessica and Amelia inform thousands of their fans about the place and time of their next performances via social networks. Among their subscribers there are people from all over the world.
Jessica (right), who was born in Perth on the ocean, says: "We adore the ocean and decided to follow our passion. It's great when you meet someone with similar interests. These are very special moments when we do this together with my best friend, with whom we are like sisters. Our feet are covered with calluses because of the tails, but it's worth it. We swapped legs for tails, and Ariel did exactly the opposite."
"When children see us swimming, they believe that we are real mermaids. It's magical. I tell them they can be anything if they have imagination. Amelia and I turned into mermaids because we believed in it," says Jessica.
Amelia is originally from Cornwall, but fell in love with the ocean when she moved to Perth at the age of 12. "We live in a place where they love the ocean very much, so it's not surprising that we are interested in it. My mother Barbara took me to the beach every day and I played in the water. Even as a child, I went on excursions to aquariums every weekend, and now I work there."
The friends met in 2008 on the first day of studying fine arts and photography at Edith Cowan University in Western Australia. Jessica says that they have always been related creatively and have worked together on various art projects.
During her training, Jessica became very interested in underwater photography. In 2011, friends decided to dress up Amelia as a mermaid for a fantastic photo shoot on a local beach. Eyewitnesses were so impressed that Amelia began to pose regularly in the image of a mermaid on the coast, and Jessica — to take photos. Six months later, Amelia became pregnant, and the project had to be frozen.
But in August 2013, shortly after the birth of twin boys (Amelia now has three children), the girl returned to her fishtail and persuaded Jessica to pose as a mermaid too.
"At first I was behind the scenes, but after Amelia's children were born, she persuaded me to follow her dream together. I realized that I also need to go out there. Since then, Amelia and I have been inseparable."
When the girls began to report details about the next photo shoots on social networks, hundreds of people began to come to the beach to look at the mermaids. Jessica says that people's reaction was positive both in real life and on the Internet and that their idea quickly turned into something grandiose.
At first they had homemade tails made of plastic and fabric, but now they are so successful that they have spent two thousand dollars on tails made of silicone resembling dragon skin. Now the couple performs at private birthday parties, teaching children mermaid swimming, and also works in aquariums, showing various tricks. They even swim there with sea turtles, fish, stingrays and with Australian nurse sharks, which reach a weight of 160 kg and a length of 3.6 meters.
Having mastered freediving, they also learned to perform tricks and acrobatic numbers underwater. During their performances, they tell children about the treasures of the ocean and underwater life. Speaking about the working relationship, Jessica notes: "Our friendship is unique. We're like one family now. Being a mermaid with my best friend is wonderful and very touching for me."
Keywords: Australia | Sharks | Disney | Cosplay | Sea | Ocean | Beaches | Princesses | Mermaids | Little mermaid | Freediving | Tail