Venessa Lewis
Age: 37
Hometown: Bordelonville, Louisiana
Occupation: The Louisiana Mermaid
Venessa Lewis grew up to fulfill the dream of many young girls: She became a mermaid.
Lewis turned her lifelong passion for one of the water’s most mythical creatures into a career.
“I grew up on the water,” says the Avoyelles Parish native. “I always somehow felt connected to the water and all the mysteries and stories I was told about it.”
In the summer of 2014, she bought a custom-made mermaid tail fashioned out of silicone and neoprene. She started swimming with the tail in public pools.
“I guess you can imagine the reaction,” she says with a laugh. “Kids and even adults would approach me and ask all kinds of questions.”
In less than a month, Lewis was receiving inquiries for appearances nonstop. She was tagged in tweet after tweet, broadcast on three local TV stations and 40 national NBC stations and contacted by Louisiana tourism agencies for marketing contracts.
Today, she provides several “mer-services.” She’ll make an appearance just about anywhere a mermaid fits in, she says, including birthday parties, fundraisers and parades.
But fame and fortune isn’t what the Louisiana Mermaid is about, Lewis says.
“I want to make an impact with this,” she says. “The most magical part of being a mermaid is instilling that magic and innocence in children, encouraging imagination and confidence, and telling kids it’s OK to embrace themselves.”
Even when she’s not dressed as a mermaid, Lewis exudes that magic. Today, she is dressed in shimmering green, mermaid-esque leggings—and she wears them with confidence. It’s all about embodying your passions, she says.
She attributes her success as the Louisiana Mermaid to her background in communications. This busy mom of two also manages her own business (Lewis Graphic Design) and teaches visual communication classes at LSU. Being able to design logos and websites, write well and market herself was critical to running the business side of her mermaid appearances.
Balancing her family and businesses can get hectic. Despite her full schedule, Lewis says nothing outweighs her passion for her double-sided career.
As for the tail, she says it takes some getting used to. After putting too much wear and tear on her first tail, she had another one made. This one is pure silicone and weighs 40 pounds.
“It’s not for everybody, but for me it always felt natural,” she says. “It’s not hard to swim in—the hard parts were learning how to dive and improving my endurance so I can stay under [water] longer.”
Lewis says one of her biggest goals as the Louisiana Mermaid is to encourage people to pursue alternative careers.
“Anyone can become a mermaid,” she says. “Anyone can do anything. It’s very possible to make a career out of something that never used to be attainable.”
