Vyana Reynolds is a visionary storyteller and regenerative systems designer whose work weaves myth, law, and ecology into a new story for humanity—one rooted in cooperation, sovereignty, and love for all life.

“Visionaries don’t predict the future, they invent it!” 

Vyana’s life is a living myth, shaped by gentle rebellion, resilience, and radical reinvention. Again and again, she’s broken through limiting beliefs to create a life that encourages freedom and prosperity for all.

At age 3, she faced food and financial insecurity—so she became an entrepreneur.

At 5, bored in kindergarten, she taught everyone long-division.

At 10, denied the right to play football with boys, she later became captain of her college’s women’s intercollegiate football team.

At 19, during a year abroad in Istanbul, she witnessed the oppression of women—so she became both an attorney and a self-defense instructor.

At 22, she overcame her greatest fear (sharks), when she learned to SCUBA dive in the cold and dark Salish Sea near her hometown of Tacoma, Washington.

By 28, she was writing non-profit legislation for Congress and winning a national award for her activism (empowering employees on Capital Hill).  That’s when she realized that real change doesn’t trickle down from power structures, it grows from the roots up.

At 30, she walked away from civil rights litigation and created her own law firm, built on empowerment and the radical idea that clients should feel cared for—not controlled. 

At 35, disillusioned by the spiritual bankruptcy of the “American Dream,” she met her Faerie Godmother and stepped into the myth of the mermaid to reclaim the parts of herself she had long suppressed—her feminine. 

When she couldn’t find mystical attire to reflect this inner change, she opened a nonprofit goddess shop where women could walk in tired and stuck—and walk out mythically transformed.  Although the store was eventually sold, she still offers “mythic makeovers” one-on-one. 

As a mermaid author, Vyana lures humanity to fall in love with the beauty of nature and learn from its creatures. Her children’s stories are infused with magic and wonder, encouraging readers of all ages to see the world through the eyes of a mermaid, where kindness, freedom and harmony with nature are the norm.  

She now seeks to make living with humans as regenerative as nature.  She is in search of an artistic community that shares her cooperative values.  Science, biomimicry and a touch of magic inspire her inventions that will help humanity live on planet earth symbiotically.    

Vyana grew up fishing with her father in the frightfully cold ocean of Tacoma, Washington, and longing to explore its mystery.  One time, she caught a huge octopus that stuck to the bottom of their canoe, wrapping its tentacles all the way around. So she gently released it back to the wild after it took a moment to rest. She felt more at home under water than above. Not knowing any other mermaids at the time, she felt lonely, and didn’t share her secret with just anyone.

Since she was also a lawyer, and had never heard of a merlawyer before, she attended her first international mermaid convention in Florida to discover that she was not alone! She’s been swimming in her monofin ever since, and moved to Hawaii’s Big Island to explore the colorful reef in its warm turquoise waters.

She is most at home in the ocean having grown up peering into the icy deep dark waters of the Salish Sea. The beauty of the majestic undersea gardens glowed in the dark and swayed with the tide. She was mesmerized by every creature she met and had a great deal of experience with the giant red octopus from the touch tanks at the local aquarium.

The octopuses loved to crawl up her arms and neck as a child, leaving little marks (or Octopus kisses). Although they grew to be over 18 feet across, they were gentle and curious. They were so smart that they reportedly crawled out of their tanks at night, across the ceiling, drop into the Gooey duck tank for a snack, and then be back in their own tank by morning before any of the aquarium staff arrived to notice. They had to hide a camera to catch the sneaky octopus on its late night adventures.

Since she has not designed her underwater castle YET, she lived on a sailboat in the San Francisco Bay for over 10 years. She loves being rocked to sleep each night by the ocean, listening to the wind in the sail rigging, and surrounded by all of the sea creatures.

Whether she’s diving into the depths or crafting enchanting tales, Vyana’s life is a testament to the magic and wisdom of the ocean, which she shares with the world through her art and storytelling.

International Mermaid Convention

Several years ago, Vyana hosted 33 mermaids from around the world at her 5 day International Mermaid Conference set up to share the goodness that each mermaid contributed to their community. Unlike other international mermaid events she had attended, it wasn’t a beauty contest. Mermaids weren’t there to “perform” or model their tails for photographers. Instead, the purpose was to connect with those special mermaid hearts who were using their mersona (mermaid persona) to increase humanity’s love for the ocean and remind us how to live symbiotically with each other and the planet. That’s why Hannah Fraser came as the key-note speaker.