February 25, 2009
No Legs? Try a Mermaid Tail.
BY: Emily Fisher
Newsflash: Mermaids are real! Or at least, one in New Zealand is. Nadya Vessey’s legs were amputated below the knee when she was a child due to illness. When a kid asked her what happened to her legs, she told him she was a mermaid. The idea stuck, so she asked Weta Workshop in Wellington, New Zealand, for a prosthetic mermaid tail. They agreed. (Weta’s special effects people are behind Lord of the Rings, King Kong, and the Chronicles of Narnia.)Now she swims in the mermaid suit, which has realistic looking painted scales and all. I’d imagine her butterfly stroke is killer.Talk about making lemons into lemonade. Now perhaps Nadya should join our Save the Merpeople campaign…
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