Kerenza Sapphire

a colourful, playful, body positive underwater soul

Photo: Sarah Wayte Creative

Kerenza Sapphire is a sparkly, colourful, friendly mermaid who is happier in water than anywhere else (well duh, she’s a mermaid…).

She is playful, joyful and kind. Her very favourite thing in the world is floating on her back in a patch of sun, watching clouds wander by. She loves learning, but gets really annoyed when she can’t master a new skill first time.

Her colours are vibrant, bold and bright – her tail is often blue but sometimes purple or green.

Though it rarely shows, she has a sneaky competitive streak which is fierce when roused.

She gets a flip (because mermaids don’t really kick) out of helping others, and is generally happy and positive, except when she witnesses people being unkind to themselves or others about the way they look, when she resembles a fire-breathing dragon more than a mermaid.

She is curvy and unafraid to show off her squidgy bits in a bikini and a stretchy tail, especially if it means other people see mermaiding as something they could do too.

And she is a little bit of a siren, too…

She is all the daydreams I ever had as a child, all the games I played in the pool and the sea, all the Cornish blood in me personified (mersonified?).  Her name is Cornish, like me – Kerenza means “love”. The name Sapphire features in the Ingo series, one of my all time favourite mer books. Kerenza is in there too, but as a description rather than a name.