Meet the woman working as a doctor by day and a performing mermaid by night.
When Yasmin Awan, 28, isn’t clad in scrubs working in hospital as a junior doctor in the major trauma unit, she’s decked out in full mermaid gear – with a huge tail, scaley bra and colourful makeup to match.
When she is in character, she goes by the name Athena Storm – and you’re more likely to find her splashing around in aquariums or frolicking on the beach than tending to patients.
Yasmin, from Wirral, describes the unusual combination of jobs as “the world’s nichest career”.
In a YouTube video published on Shera, a digital platform dedicated to empowering women, Yasmin described how she splits the two sides to her life – and revealed how it all came about as a form of light relief from her stressful studies.
She said: “It is pretty different from my human life as Yasmin.
“It’s nice to be able to separate the two.
“Both aspects of what I do are very different.
“Being a junior doctor, particularly at the moment, comes with a lot of challenges.
“It’s very, very busy, very challenging work – and people forget that healthcare workers, nurses, doctors, HCAs, they forget that we’re also human.
“Being able to jump in and be a kids’ entertainer, being a character that’s separate to me is great for leaving that [work] in its box.
“I think it’s important to be able to compartmentalise, especially in healthcare, and to leave it at work – which is what I really enjoy about being a mermaid.
“It brings a little bit of magic, which the world is lacking at the moment.
“Having both [jobs] is important to me.
“At one point I tried to separate the two, I was Yasmin or I was Athena, but they are both huge parts of who I am, and I’m not one or the other – I am both, and I’m really proud of it.”
Yasmin first started exploring her aquatic side six years ago in 2017 after taking part in a weekend camp to learn how to be a mermaid.
She has never looked back, and has since taken to performing at events as Athena, as well as swimming with sharks.
It originally started as a way to distract from her stressful studies.
Yasmin said: “I was already struggling, it was a lot of work, it was very overwhelming and I put a lot of pressure on myself to do well.
“I think they [my parents] must have thought ‘Oh my goodness, she has snapped’…
“…[but] I was ready to explore and do things that were different.
“Six years down the line, they still think it’s a bit different – which it is – but I don’t think any of us saw it going as well as it has.
“If you don’t try, you don’t know.”
