When a little boy asked double amputee Nadya Vessey why she didn’t have any legs, she answered, “I am a mermaid.”
Two-and-a-half years later that dream came true thanks to a mermaid suit designed by the Hollywood special effects company Weta Workshop. But unlike the kind seen in movies like Splash, this prosthesis is fully-functional.
Now Nadya has her own children’s book “The Mermaid Who Lost Her Tail” about a mermaid who washes ashore and has to use “dollies’ legs” (prosthetic legs) but returns to the sea with the help of the “Wonderful Wetas.”