Junior doctor has a side hustle as a professional mermaid
A woman has revealed an unusual side hustle she performs alongside her day-to-day job as a junior doctor – being a professional mermaid.
Yasmin Awan, 28, from Neston, Wirral, is now a qualified mermaid after first taking an interest in the subject six years ago.
As well as working as a junior doctor in the major trauma unit at Aintree Hospital in Liverpool, she also runs the business, Aquatic Mermaids, with her best friend, which involves performing as a mermaid at kids' parties and weddings.
In her water-based role, Awan, who uses the mermaid name 'Athena Storm', has swum with sharks in aquariums using a monofin and hopes to visit the Maldives to swim with whale sharks.
In order to qualify as a professional mermaid she had to learn to hold her breath underwater and swim with a monofin.
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She first became interested in becoming a mermaid after stumbling across an advert while she was studying for her MA six years ago.
"I was working late in the library and procrastinating online when I found an advert explaining how people could learn to be a mermaid," she explains.
Having spent the weekend being trained in the art of mermaid-ing, Awan says the practice is now a huge part of her life.
"I used to separate my life into being a doctor and being a mermaid, but now it is all one," she explains.
"Junior doctors have tricky rotas, so if I'm on call or on lates I can't do as much as I would like."
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Awan says she has both a rubber tail and a fabric tails, and makes all her mermaid tops herself.
"They have to be safe for marine animals, so I sew every sequin on," she says.
"People might assume being a mermaid is not that complicated, but it's not just dressing up.
"I had to learn to hold my breath for an extended amount of time.
"It's all very technical but people don't realise that."
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Awan says there's another aspect to her side hustle she really enjoys, seeing the impact it has on the children.
"It's really special," she says. "What I do makes a really positive difference.
Awan has put her skills into practice competing in a Miss Mermaid competition, and has approached Alder Hey and Sheffield Children's Hospitals about doing charity events for them.
"I know I'm one person so I can't change the world, but if I can change one person's world, and give a child a bit of magic, I am making the world a bit of a happier place.
"It fills me with joy."
Awan has put her skills into practice competing in the Miss Mermaid competition, and has approached Alder Hey and Sheffield Children's Hospitals about doing charity events for them.
There's an environmental aspect to being a mermaid too.
"We do beach cleans where I bring a blow-up clam, and the kids get a 'wish crystal' if they bring me some rubbish," she says.
"If you start instilling positive messages young, children really respond to it."
Additional reporting SWNS.
