Meet, Miss Dana The “Feral Mermaid”
🧜🏼
“For most of my life, I knew exactly who I was supposed to be.
Mom. Daughter. Sister. Wife. Caregiver. Teacher. The person who showed up for everyone else.
And I loved those roles.
But somewhere along the way, I realized I had forgotten to ask a simple question:
Who is Dana?”
Before she was the Feral Mermaid, Dana was a kid who didn’t quite fit the mold. A young woman who was told she wasn’t expected to amount to much.
So naturally…
She proved them wrong.
After leaving high school early, she earned her GED, then her associate degree, then her bachelor’s degree in Sociology with a minor in Psychology from Washington State University.
She eventually returned to the same school district that once left her behind, this time as a behavior coach, helping students who struggled to find their place. She saw herself in those kids because she had been one of them.
She loved that work.
She loved helping people find the best version of themselves.
But after years of giving everything she had, something inside her began whispering:
There has to be more.
For decades, Dana built a safe and beautiful life. She worked hard, raised a family, supported the people she loved, and created a home filled with memories.
Then one day, at 53 years old, she looked around and realized something.
Safe wasn’t the same thing as fulfilled.
The life she had built was wonderful, but she was ready to experience the one she had always dreamed about.
So she turned to her husband and said:
“Come on down to Oregon with me.”
At first, he thought she was joking.
She wasn’t.
Together, they sold the comfortable life they had spent decades creating and traded it for something completely unknown.
An adventure van.
An off-grid cabin.
A life built around experiences instead of possessions.
A chance to find The Dana.
Since then, she has learned things she never imagined she would.
She has built decks, poured concrete, learned off-grid systems, created solar power setups, hauled water, driven thousands of miles across the country, traveled by train, camped in deserts and mountains, explored coastlines, and lived a life that exists far outside the lines she once followed.
She even spent part of that journey living in a van while building a 200-square-foot cabin with her husband and their adventure dog.
And here’s the thing nobody tells you about choosing a simpler life:
It’s hard.
Really hard.
But it’s also incredibly freeing.
Dana discovered that many of the things we spend our lives collecting eventually become just that…
Things.
The memories matter.
The moments matter.
The people beside you matter.
The rest is just stuff taking up space.
That realization became the heart behind Feral Apparel.
Because being feral isn’t about running away from life.
It’s about running toward yourself.
It’s about laughing at uncertainty.
It’s about being scared to go out and do a thing, and doing it anyway.
It’s about standing barefoot outside under the stars, loving the body you’re in, gray hairs and all.
(It’s also about accepting that mermaid hair comes with the occasional chin hair. 😉)
Being feral means no longer shrinking yourself to make other people comfortable.
It means you don’t have to earn love.
You don’t have to earn friendship.
You don’t have to ask permission to be exactly who you are.
Feral is freedom.
Feral is adventure.
Feral is becoming the person you were always meant to be.
These designs come from moments, places, and memories collected along the way.
They are pieces of a journey.
A reminder that life is still waiting for you.
So whether your adventure takes you across the country, down a dirt road, into the mountains, or simply into a more honest version of yourself…
Maybe it’s time to go a little feral.
❤️
Miss Dana
The Feral Mermaid 🧜🏼