The Little Seal Girl That Could
Diamonds in my eyes, I polish up real nice
Witches, evil queens, good wives + lion cubs,
When I started this newsletter, I was very lost and on a quest for two things: freedom and feeling understood by those closest to me.
I’ve never been able to communicate my emotions verbally, and I’d become so disconnected from my creative outlets that I’d turned into a ticking time bomb. By the time I noticed, I was already exploding glitter everywhere, and all I could do was ride the wave.
First there was a lot of anger, then there was a lot of love, and the tears were endless throughout the entire process. I didn’t know what to do with all of it, but I knew I couldn’t keep living in my head, so I threw myself into action.
📌Some choices paved the way for a complete rebirth — like daily nature walks, weekly volunteering, joining an improv group, and diving headfirst into the world of consulting.
📌Other choices turned into lessons — like making grand gestures fit for a romcom or briefly changing my Instagram handle to dismantledbarbie69.
Regardless, I moved without fear for the first time in a long time, and this very public weekly touchpoint kept me accountable even when I wanted to curl up and disappear. These last few weeks in particular, I’ve really struggled to write, and I realized it’s because I did what I came here to do.
My mind feels free, and with that freedom I’ve let go of the need to be understood. This space that once served as a lifeline now feels more like a tether to a version of me that no longer exists. Still, I made a commitment to see this through and honoring that matters to me. So, we will continue on as planned for our final three weeks together.
This whole experience has had me thinking a lot about selkies. They’re mythological seal-people and I fell in love with them when I was like four years old. They teach us how the same skin that protects us may be the very thing we must shed in order to form authentic connections with ourselves and each other.
Welcome Back to Summah Camp!
A weekly storytelling series about rewriting our lives through pattern recognition and mythmaking. If you’re new, start with the syllabus then choose your own adventure.
I’m the Mahvelous Ms. B — former teacher, current human. I’ll be your tour guide this season as we journey through the deep end together.
This week’s episode is: Claim It. Let’s dive in. ⬇️⬇️⬇️
Rip Off Your Skin & Skedaddle!
Some cultures have sirens and others have mermaids, but Ireland has always been way too unhinged for that. Selkies are seal-people who come to shore and quite literally rip their skin off. Guess what pops out? A naked woman!
Unlike the siren whose primary objective is to lure sailors to a slow death, selkies are just trying to vibe. All they want to do is explore the land, meet cool people, and return home freely. However, much like The Little Mermaid, their ability to walk on land comes at a steep price.
In order to explore, they have to leave their little skin suits unattended. The issue is that a selkie’s skin holds all its power and its freedom to choose — so if a human steals it, they get to own the woman inside the seal. As you can imagine, nearly all traditional selkie stories end tragically for someone. They’re used to teach lessons about the cost of freedom, the risks of loving what you cannot hold, and the inevitability of returning to your true nature.
On my journey through the deep end, I searched far and wide for selkie stories where the woman gets to keep her skin and travel freely between worlds. I was only able to find one, but that’s all I needed to keep my spirits delusionally high.
Welcome Back to What’s the Point Island
Once upon a time, there were three selkie sisters who came to shore to rip off their skin and explore. When they returned to the beach after their adventures, they found three brothers had stolen their skin suits, binding them to marriage and a life on land.
At first, they played the role that was pre-scripted for them. They got married, had children, and built relatively chill lives with their captor-husbands — but eventually their longing for the sea came bursting out of them like glitter.
The oldest sister caved first. She said, “fork this!”, found her skin in the middle of the night, fled to the beach, and never looked back. After seeing this play out, the middle sister’s husband was so afraid of losing his wife that he threw her skin suit into the fireplace. Unfortunately, a selkie is only as strong as her skin, so she burst into flames, too.
After witnessing their fates, the youngest sister was paralyzed by fear, caught between land and sea — and she now understood that the power to return no longer rested with her. It was her husband’s call, and when he finally made it, everything changed.
One day he returned the skin she thought was gone for forever and told her she was free. Before she left, he asked why she would choose the sea over the life they had built. She explained it was about remembering herself. The ocean gave her space to breathe, to hear her own thoughts, and to reclaim the parts of her she had been forced to forget.
In the version of the story I love most, she didn’t vanish forever. She stayed away only long enough to feel whole again. When she returned, it was by her own will, not because she was bound or persuaded.
From then on, they built a life that honored both worlds. They gave each other space and cared for one another without control. Sometimes they lived side by side on land, other times she swam freely for months. Their best days were spent beneath the waves, exploring waters he had only dreamed of and revisiting the places she once called home.
She chose the man who had chosen her freedom. Because love, at its best, is trust — and trust is a choice.
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the youngest sister — how she stayed true to herself in both worlds, and was loved for it, not in spite of it. It’s the same kind of self-love I’ve been working to embody, because I deeply believe we can’t offer love to others until we can give it to ourselves first.
Learning to hold every part of myself with compassion has meant getting honest about how I’ve been treated, how I’ve treated others, and where both have gone wrong. It’s been exhausting and gut-wrenching, but I ended up creating a love I didn’t even know could exist in the process. If these last nine months have taught me anything it’s that freedom and love aren’t opposites — they grow best side by side.
First, I escaped to the beach, then I burned down the house. I’ve heard third time’s a charm though so, I’m choosing to delusionally believe that somewhere out there, there’s someone who can love without needing to control.
And maybe that person is waiting for a seal girl who, in spite of it all, is brave enough to rip off her skin, choose vulnerability, and lead the way.
As always, take what resonates and leave the rest. See you next week!
<3 The Mahvelous Ms. B
PS. Click here for this week’s mixtape and see below for a special bonus track that was too niche for Spotify —
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