DANICA MAYNERD

Especially for www.MeetingVenus.com

by Sherif Awad

I began my interest in dancing at a young age. I was privileged enough to be sent  to a special dance and drama school called Hurst Lodge in Sunningdale where ballet and drama were part of the curriculum as a GCSE. My mother was also very interested in performing arts and so she directed a lot of performances at our local church including a production of Joseph’s Technicolor Dreamcoat. I also performed in a local theatre with my school many musicals each year which I loved more than anything in the world.

During my younger years, I loved Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie as actresses – my favourite films growing up as a teenager were MERMAID with Cher and Winona Ryder and Cristina Ricci and GIRL INTERRUPTED with Angelina Jolie and Winona Ryder.

Once I hit my twenties, I moved to London and became a competitive cheerleader where I was in a squad competing against other teams across the UK. It was an incredible sport that I absolutely loved, especially all the sparkly uniforms we got to wear and the big curly hairstyles and big bows in my hair!

After 6 years as a cheerleader, I decided to try something new and so accidently, through my love of training at the gym, I discovered bodybuilding!! I then began a three-year stint competing as a bikini girl in competitions against other women across the UK… This was very, very disciplined sport and I  was literally on a strict diet for three years straight and constantly in the gym day and night– in the end, I gave it up as it was causing too many restrictions on my personal life and my relationship with my family for very little reward.

After that, I dabbled in Aerial Hoop, and then decided I wanted to become a mermaid and underwater model.

I trained very hard with an amazing freediving company called Bluewater Freediving School that helped me build up my breath holding skills to a level where I can safely hold my breath for around 3.38 comfortably and swim 75 meters with my monofin in a swimming pool. Being a mermaid and underwater model is literally the best thing that has ever happened to me! It makes me more happy than any of my other hobbies ever have!!!! When I’m in the water I just switch off from all the rest of the world and just disappear in to another world. If I could, I would be in the water permanently (laughs)!

My biggest dream is to make it as a professional underwater model and travel the world to do jobs in tropical oceans and make beautiful pictures and meet plenty of beautiful fish that I’ve never seen before!

Breaking in to the industry and getting yourself know is hard at the start but im sure it will come if I keep training and working really hard to build my reputation and portfolio.

I always welcome every opportunity as a blessing and I truly thankful to all of the people who have believed in me this far and that have tried to help me get to where I want to be.