Depictions of mermaids in pop culture are as fluid as the water they inhabit, drifting from tales of evil seductresses to beautiful ingenues who dream of love and life on land. They represent both miraculous serendipity and absolute tragedy, acting as saviors who lead sailors to desired destinations, or tricking them into death. Our belief in these sea creatures traces back thousands of years, popping up in the art, literature, and folklore of several different cultures around the globe. Perhaps this is because mermaids represent a power that humans don’t understand—the symbols of a greater, intangible fear of the unknown. And perhaps it’s only natural, as our relationship to water becomes ever the more pressing, as our personal tempest persists against us, to look towards familiar mythology to help navigate the storms of everyday life. 

Virginia Hankins is a renaissance woman: an actress, a stunt woman, a professional archer, a mermaid, a modern day lady knight, and a mother. She’s the founder of Sheroes Entertainment, a party services group partially inspired by the unforgiving nature of the acting business. “In acting you’re always dependent on someone else liking you,” she says. “You’re always dependent on what the look is of the season, and if you’re not that, you’re not working. We do original characters because anyone can be a mermaid, which means that there is no right answer to what a mermaid looks like.” 

LA Mermaid School is an educational division operating under Sheroes, offering training for amateur mermaids or pros looking to polish up on their mermaid magic. The school has been utilized for training on film sets, in professional photoshoots, and as challenges for TV shows such as Germany’s Next Topmodel. “Normally, if people in LA are looking for mermaids, they call us,” says Hankins. She adds that beyond occupying a special niche, educating the next generation on the ocean’s ecosystem is a rewarding perk of her occupation. “One of the most amazing things for me is making people’s worlds bigger,” she says.

Hankins leads a team of mermaids who are trained for any possible opportunity: underwater modeling, performing at parties, tank shows, traveling jobs. They’re required to be lifeguard certified, which Hankins also guides them through, but each mermaid has an unteachable spark in their personality that allows them to connect to the audiences they perform for. They must be prepared to prove themselves to skeptical children, have scholarly knowledge of sea-life, and the core strength to maneuver a 30-pound tail with a smile on their face and whimsy in their voice. “We’re acting, we’re improvising, and we’re being athletic at the same time,” says Carolina Gutierrez. “The magic happens after, but people don’t see everything that goes on behind closed doors.” 

Mermaiding requires a firm grip on adventure and imagination, and their honest dedication to the role might be a symptom of their commitment to something bigger than themselves. “As a mermaid,” says mermaid Quintessence, “you can have a special connection with kids that you can’t have as an adult or an outsider perspective, because kids… you’re right in there, you’re right in their imagination, you live right there all the time in the forefront of their head. Getting to play off of their own imagination and add to it, and then fuel that into something even more beautiful is my favorite part.” 

Then, there are times when kids remind the mermaids what it means to be human. “I really like kids, there’s very rarely, if ever, a kid that I don’t like,” adds mermaid Elizabeth Champion. “I think kids and people are inherently good, and sometimes it gets lost a little bit along the way, but working with huge groups of five year-olds will remind you of that—that we’re inherently good.” 

We live in a modern world, one that no longer requires us to blame mystical forces for our fortunes and misfortunes. Our collective circumstances may vary, but people are arguably the same: the same desires, fears, needs, and dreams. Perhaps these stories are not echoes of the unknown, but mirrors of our natural imagination and inspirations—and perhaps it may be beneficial to pull inspiration from generations of cultural lore to pilot the surmounting seas of change. 

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Written by Franchesca Baratta
Photographed by Brett Stanley
Creative Direction: Gorge Villapando
Models: Quinn Smith and Naiia Lajoie