Mermaid washes up on Jersey beaches

Monday 19 June 2017

If you think you might have seen an unusual aquatic creature in the sea at Bouley Bay or around Havre des Pas, rest assured, your eyes are not playing a trick on you: a mermaid has recently chosen the area as her go-to spot to splash around.

Lauren McQueen, who says she has always wanted to be a mermaid, recently bought a tail online and decided to make the jump into the sea.

Born in Jersey, Lauren started swimming when she was only two. Mesmerized by Disney's Little Mermaid and other movies, she then taught herself how to swim like Ariel with the help of a towel. She told Express:  "My first Disney movie was the Little Mermaid, so Ariel was always my favourite princess and she inspired me. I self-taught myself mermaid swimming when I was eight. I started swimming with a towel around my legs. It sounds really silly but I would put a towel around my legs and I kept it secured by tying a hair band at the bottom and I just swam!"

"I always swam like a mermaid. Even if I haven't got the towel around my legs or the tail, I just swim with my legs together and my arms forward and cross them over. You have to be flat under the water, you have to use every part of your body to swim. It is tiring but it's a very good workout."

Lauren says that she always dreamed of being a mermaid and used to get made fun of, for saying so. But she kept on swimming and at the age of 22 bought her first tail online, obviously green like Ariel's. Since getting the tail, which she says is "extraordinary", she decided to start swimming in the sea in ice cold water. She also launched a Facebook page, titled Jersey's Own Little Mermaid, to keep people updated with her whereabouts. 

 She explains: "I'm doing this to inspire people to do what they want to and be what they want to be. They don't have to be scared or care about what everyone says, if their heart is set on it they will do it."

A former Bel Royal and Haute Vallée student, Lauren works in a pharmacy during the week and helps her mum run a guesthouse. It's only at the weekends that she puts her tail on and makes her way into the water, mainly at Bouley Bay. So far, she says the response has been pretty positive, on her page as well as by the sea. "When I started swimming, I had tourists watching me at Bouley Bay. It was a beautiful day and some were at the top of the cliffs or in the café and they were watching me. I actually had a photo taken with a little French girl that couldn't believe there was a mermaid in Bouley Bay!"

As the mermaid swimming has helped boost her self-confidence, she says she is mainly doing it for her own enjoyment. She explains: "If people don't want to watch me swimming or if they don't like it, I'll just keep on swimming! I will never be a real mermaid, but this is as close as I can get so I'm just living the dream really!"