Australia-born Hannah Fraser’s dream of becoming a professional mermaid may have sounded like a fairytale at one time, but she made it a reality through her hard work. Today she lives between Los Angeles and Costa Rica and the ocean is the most important part of her life. Since childhood, he felt a deep and unique attraction towards water. She often swam with both her legs folded as if she were a real mermaid. Even his stick figure drawings made in his younger days showed a tail instead of human legs.
When she was nine years old, she saw the film Splash. This film awakened a new belief in her that becoming a mermaid is not just a fantasy but can also be a reality. At that time, with the help of his mother, he made his first tail from an orange plastic tablecloth and pillowcase cotton. For months she kept swimming wearing the tail and every time she felt as if she had reached her real world.
How the dream became reality
Hannah’s childhood was spent in different cities like Melbourne, Los Angeles and India. Often being away from the sea hurt him deeply. Perhaps this was the reason why he connected art with his dream. She continued creating mermaid art, modeling and keeping her connection with the ocean alive through costume designing and photography.
The year 2002 proved to be the turning point in his life. He got a chance for an underwater photoshoot. When he saw his underwater photos, he clearly realized that water was his true identity. She decided that she would become a professional mermaid, even though it was almost impossible to find mermaid tails in the market at that time. After several months of hard work, he created his first real silicone tail. Today he has 14 silicone and 15 fabric tails. It takes more than six months and special technology to prepare each one.
Hanna descends into deep water without an oxygen tank, without a wetsuit and without a mask. She can free dive below 50 feet and can hold her breath for about four minutes. For marine life conservation, she does photoshoots and films with creatures like sharks, whales, dolphins, seals, turtles and rays. In such moments she feels herself a part of the ocean.
have come face to face with death
His career also includes many frightening experiences. The most challenging of these was swimming with a 14-foot long great white shark. Before the shoot, she was unable to sleep properly for several weeks due to fear. But as soon as she entered the water, she felt a strange peace. Once a shark started moving straight towards them. At that moment she spread her hands making noise underwater and swam towards him. Surprisingly the shark retreated. Hanna always jokes that whenever she gets scared, she remembers that she forced the Great White to retreat.
Sometimes sea creatures come so close that a collision-like situation occurs. During a shoot, a shark bit him slightly after seeing his shiny tail. That moment was definitely dangerous, but later that picture went viral and people liked it a lot.
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Hannah keeps herself under strict discipline for this difficult profession. She does yoga daily, practices dance, pays special attention to breath work and stretching and adopts a vegan diet. Staying in cold water for hours, fighting strong currents and working among dangerous creatures is not easy. Still, Hanna does not consider it a job. For them it is a way of life. For her, the sea is the place where she feels most alive.
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