(Copied and pasted from my page: sharkgirlblog.blogspot.com)

My name is Hannah Fizell (Shark Girl)...

I am merely just a beach bummin', ocean lovin', shark freak looking to fulfill a dream of becoming a shark biologist, learning everything I can about sharks, and then teaching people all about them, and most importantly to me, proving Hollywood and the media wrong that sharks are not “mindless man-eaters” but highly misunderstood gentle giants of the sea.
I was born and raised here where I am currently living, in St. Petersburg, Florida, which is perfect for people like me who have a deep love like this for the ocean and the underwater world it holds, as here in Florida we are surrounded by bodies of water and beaches. I was born with this love and passion and I am convinced I have the ocean water running through my vains. This is a love and passion that was placed in me by God Himself that has always been there and will always be for as long as I live. I honestly cannot picture myself doing anything else.    
Being home schooled up until the 6th grade I was able to go to the beach a lot with my family when we weren't doing work. We also enjoyed going in the evenings when we could and ending that beautiful beach day watching the sunset God painted. Each day we get to go to the beach it is the same routine for me for the most part. It is an overjoy each day just hearing that we are going to the beach and I can never get enough of it. I love getting there and just running full throttle to the beach and just for a moment standing there with my eye's closed praising and thanking the Lord for the day, the beach, and my favorite place of all time to be, the ocean. I love as I am standing there breathing in the beach air and listening to the ocean waves raising up and crashing on the beach floors. Of course you can guess my favorite moment of all each beach day is running out to the ocean after getting on that sunscreen and assisting Mom (and Dad sometimes) settling in. As I run and dive into the ocean water it's just an amazing rush of joy just being happy to be there once again and enjoying every little thing like the feel of the water as I dive in through my fingers and toes, when I am free diving I enjoy each and every little thing like the glorious sunbeams breaking through and moving throughout the waters as the fish play and the plants sway and dance to the movement of the ocean. Each visit I end up spending 100% of my time in the water swimnming and diving. It is rare you find my on the beach and when I am it's just to collect shells for necklaces and to enjoy the sounds of the ocean waters as well as the birds above. What a glorious place God created, this underwater world that I love with every fiber of my living being, and so much so I “would defy the very air I breathe to be apart of it.” (Madison Stewart-Another Shark-Girl)
   For most of my life I thought about scuba diving and how much I wanted to do it, specially on the days where I observe divers suiting up and hitting the waters. I had it in my head for most of my life since I knew what scuba diving was that when I get older I was going to do it too, I was going to learn how to scuba dive. In the mean time up until high school when I really learned about free-diving I didn't know that term but I knew the definition as I practiced it since I could swim, which was holding my breath and diving underwater. I kept record of my best underwater time and was and still am set on one day being able to hold my breath as long as amazing people out there like Cristina Zenato. This mindset was always in my head of strengthening my lungs through practice holding my breath underwater so I can stay under and dive for long periods of time on one breathe. So see I knew the definition of what free diving was but didn't know the term. I just thought the term for it was, “holding your breath forever underwater but making sure you come up before you pass out and die.” I practiced in the ocean which at times made my family nervous and worrisome, in the tub, at my aunt's pool and anybody of water I could get into. That forever has been an obsession and a goal I wasn't soon going to let go and still do to this day have that free dive goal. Last summer (2011) I got scuba certified at the Bill Jackson's shop for Adventure, and so the dive adventures began...
It was literally what I thought to be the best day of my life side from the day that would one day come when I would start diving with the sharks. The best day of my life I think will be (under Christ's return) is the day I get to fulfill my dream of diving with (a) Great White(s) and with no cage. My dive master was the awesome Michael Love at the shop who is also the current manager and we also had Bill and Chaboe! These three are the best! I love all the guy's at the shop but that's another topic I will save for later...
Since then I have been on 6 scuba dives and two being legit shark dives. It's hard at this current time as I do not have transportation but the great thing with Bill Jackson's is they allow me to carpool with them over to the dive location so I just continue to save as best I can and go with them on dive trips. Currently now I am volunteering every chance I get at the shop and looking into places like mote marine to volunteer at, as I want to stay active till I go to college, but even then I want to volunteer through school and stay as active as I can.  I even made a goal to meet Dr. Sylvia Earle's dive record of 8000+ hrs dive time and determined to maybe one day grow up to be just like “her deepness,” and for those that don't know she is one of four biologists I highly look up to, who is an underwater explorer in residence with National Geographic dubbed, “her deepness.”
I take a lot after my Papa who I look up to in my family and enjoy spending time with and learning from every chance I get. He knows so much and has taught me most everything I know from, what I know about knots, to boats and diving, and even food too (yes!), as well as many other things. There is not a visit in my life thus far where I didn't learn at least one great thing whether it's one of those areas or even in our encouraging talks as I grow in the LORD. He is very passionate about boating and diving and a lot of the same area's I share with you today. When I first got certified he showed me this awesome dive album and I learned about how he and even my dad were scuba divers. I just loved (and love) hearing dive stories from them. One of my favorite days that replay in my head is a trip we took as a family to Rainbow River after I got certified for diving (finally). We were just going over there to go down the river swimming (not scuba diving this time). During that whole trip down the river I free dove just enjoying all that was to be seen down there, and collecting things like the 5 dollar bill I found (ha!), and as I was diving, I turned and noticed my dad was free diving as well, and so was Papa. We were having the time of our lives together just enjoying each others company, as well as our time in the water of course. The three of us free dove down together for awhile exploring through the river, and even watching as my siblings were attempting to dive and hang with us too...three generations diving down together side by side. My heart warmed and I was overjoyed at that moment, and stoked to be in between two people that I love and look up to in this area...my Dad and my Papa. 
After learning that they were divers, I realize that makes me a third generation diver in our family. They (in their support and excitement upon certification) have been thinking about getting recertified and into diving once again. When I am underwater I can't help to smile from ear to ear and when I am done there every bone/muscle in my body just relaxes and I even forget the world up there on shore (which on bad days can be a great thing). It's as if the world above the water doesn't exist it's just completely forgotten and nowhere in my memory. The only world I know when I am down there is right there, the ocean world. “There is an (glorious) underwater world that is just waiting to be discovered” as my cousin Brian shared with me after I got certified and I want to discover it. A big thing in my family is diving and boating. I have been around boats a lot as that is a great love throughout our family as well as kayaking, canoeing, snorkeling, and free diving. I didn't realize the past down love for scuba diving until I was scuba certified and then it was revealed thru stories and photo albums leading to my Papa and Dad sharing they wanted to get back into diving now that I am certified and eager to go.
  The time I discovered this love and passion for sharks was on my first year watching “Shark Week,” which is the one week a year (my holiday) that Discovery Channel plays nothing but shark education shows...Prior to that first time watching shark week we as a family saw the movie that sparked the great terror in the world, “Jaws.” See, now at first, I do admit, I was slightly nervous about getting into the water after seeing that film with my family but quickly the next beach day blew it off and got in. As I thought about the film and what picture of the sharks was being shown, I thought it through and realized it can't be true. If sharks were these “mindless man-eaters” I am sure we would hear of way more shark attacks on our beaches, and that is rare that we even do. I also thought of how fake for one it was, from the bad acting to the huge sharks the size of a house. My family remained frightful and now even more strict about how far I could swim out. Sadly my dad also discontinued swimming out with us. I use to love going out so far I couldn't touch the bottom. Dad would hold our littlest sibling at the time, while the rest of us that could swim would snorkel and free dive enjoying our time in the water together. A few different times I enjoyed was going out far with my dad while the others were too scared to join and just swimming through the water by his side. That was our best bonding time those beach day's, that I sorely miss.

A little later on, getting back on my “when my shark love was discovered” topic... we later as a family turned on the television, and my dad turned on Discovery Channel, and so shark week for us was discovered. I quickly grew attached and could not leave the television to save my life, I became so sucked in. As I watched shark week, I became more and more interested in sharks and wanted to learn everything that I can. It angered me when my Dad would turn the channel, even if it was on commercial break because, I feared if he waited too long to turn it back I would miss something and regret letting him, although I probably wouldn't have a say because, he is the one with the controller, otherwise that channel is not getting changed no matter what else is on...not even for the “three stooges” which is a show I grew up watching with my family and was obsessed with. Watching intently at the movement of the sharks and their behavior as I listened to the biologists and others speak, I had this exciting, interested feeling that filled me up from my toes, to my nose and beyond. After shark week the passion remained and I began looking at photos and reading up on sharks of all kinds online.
A couple years ago is when I started breaking out my pad and paper taking as much notes as I can to study after. There were (and are) three columns...the left side is for listing all biologists and others mentioned and features, while the right hand side was all the foundations and places mentioned, and last but not least in the middle were all my notes as I learned all about sharks that I could from each show. During commercial breaks, as long as my siblings weren't on radar to come in and change the channel of course, I would look these people up and learn about them and their foundations, as well as their research, and even email them asking questions about their research, and even about sharks in general as I had to learn everything I possibly can about these magnificent and interesting creatures God created, and so a passionate obsession that would last a life time was born...not only was I passionate now about the ocean and the glorious world within that it holds, I was in love with all the creatures within...most of all for the sharks.
I gave up my love for theater and the desire I had to become an actress for this real and true God given love I found. It's funny, because this love for science and of nature and all this was always there my entire life now that I look back, but I didn't see it until this point, and when my teachers throughout time in school showed me I had an act for this subject, and did well with it,( which is why when my grades slipped due to being overly social and even lazy, they didn't let me pursue any excuses and made sure I hopped to getting my grades back up as they know I can, they have seen me when I actually focus (no distractions...I am very distractable), and knew I had it in me.) I had it in the back of my head how much I would love to be a scientist of some sort, and in general thinking of pursuing a career in the science/biology area, but never spoke of that interest I knew in fear of being labeled “a nerd,” On my senior year of high school when I had Ms. Cheryl Hanneman as a biology teacher, I felt as though I could open up to her about anything and I did. She was the best teacher I have ever had and as she still works at my high school to today, I strongly recommend her to anyone. She noticed how well I did in her class, in this subject and saw in my eye's the interest, and one day we sat down and went over my grades which were great expect for a few areas in biology I struggled in. As we talked through the year and I shared this love that was building for the ocean and for sharks and biology (etc.,), she saw it also asked me herself If I ever considered a career in biology or in the area, and I did. I read up online about all different marine careers that existed to narrow it down to what I think I would be great in and what would suit me. When I read about Marine Biology I was hooked and felt in me, that's it, that's what I am suppose to do, and that is the career for me but with a focus on sharks. After sharing this with her and my interest she supported me completely offering to help me find good schools to apply to, scholarships and the whole nine yards. Mrs. Hanneman was my greatest encouragement and meant (and means) more to me than I can express. God has blessed me with the greatest biology teacher that school could offer and I cannot to this day thank Him enough for her.
From shark week, to this point I shared, to today and on I study sharks on my free time at the library, online, and of course every year on Shark Week which for me is my holiday, and one I look up to way more than my birthday. This is my passionate-obsession and my life calling. I will do whatever it takes to make my goal and fulfill my dream of becoming a shark biologist. I dream of the future chapter of my life and the days I will hopefully be able to meet some of the biologists and divers I look up to such as my main four, Dr. Sylvia Earle (her deepness), Michael Rutzen, Doctor Samuel H. Gruber and Cristina Zenato, as well as Dr. Andrea Marshall and Dr. Simon Pierce.
November 2011 going into December of 2011 - I started receiving skype calls from Michael Rutzen. I did not answer them at first as I thought it wasn't really going to be him, and if so it must be a mistake because why would he care to talk to me? I am just some shark lover with no experience (YET). Two weeks go by with several calls coming in, and then they stopped awhile. One day out of the blue I received a skype call and it was Michael on my cell as I was on the beach with my Aunt and Uncle. I answered...he hung up before I could answer...2 minutes later he called again....I answered....Me: Hello? Michael: Hey Hannah Me: Hey Michael, how are you?! Michael: Good, I have been trying to get a hold of you!...and so it began. I was screaming inside, and my mind was blown. He did mean for me and he asked me many questions like where I was at, and what I wanted to do, as well as my plans. He even made sure I was serious about going after this career goal as this is very serious, no joke. “I am very serious,” I explained, “and I will do whatever it takes to do this and make it, and I will not give up. Period.” From there we had a great discussion that ended in planning another day to talk as I was on the beach, unable to write any contacts down or anything as I had nothing with me. 

Christmas Eve I received the call that would really begin it all...that morning we skyped face to face, and I took down many notes of everyone he wanted me to contact, and whatever he shared that needed to be written as we discussed this shark thing. We both smiled a lot and had a great chat. He shared in the first call that I could use his name as a reference, and he shared he was going to help me make a name for myself and break into this field. To get into this marine biology field you must make a name for yourself and really break into it. It's not easy to do that, but once you do, you are good to go, and you go on from there, but don't misunderstand me because, it is still very tough to not only break in, but stay in, and it's a very hard working field. It's not all fun and games, and easy going,but very hard work, and you must as Michael shared, be willing to really put your life into it and wrap your time in life around it, because it will take up your life, and all your time with hard working days, and evenings studying, diving and working with these magnificent and amazing creatures. The man I highly respect and look up to since that year I first saw that documentary now was going to help me get into this, and in that I am stoked.
I started contacting all the people he mentioned: Doctor Sylvia Earle, Cristina Zenato, Doc (Samuel H.) Gruber, Michael Worden, Erik Brush and many more as these contacts gave me more suggestions and contacts, and I started to get all the advice I can, and learn all I can from them about sharks. As advice and suggestions were and are given I just keep following up and doing what I can. He made a clearer mention to contact Doc Gruber and Cristina Zenato as they taught him pretty much everything he knows.

April 9th, 2012 I was accepted to go to the Bimini Shark Lab this October-November with Doc. Gruber. 

Doc Gruber is an amazing biologist who discovered "Tonic Immobility" in sharks. I will be going Lord willing this October 15th to November 15th, 2012 to the Bimini Biological Field Station - Shark Lab where I will be a volunteer.
As a volunteer if I go Lord willing I will be getting involved in the field work as well as learning many things like tagging and tracking, diving with them of course and learning in experiments in the shark pen. I will be gaining a feel of what it's like to be a biologist and learn many things such as these to take on as I go thru college and onto my career as a Shark Biologist/Scientist. He is an amazing man that you can learn a great deal from and it will be an honor to work and learn from him and even meet him.
Now that I have been accepted I am working on raising funds to go and the total price including the monthly volunteer fee, the monthly project fee, and travel fee is $2030. The first $750 (volunteer fee) is due this June 15th, 2012 and the rest is due before my departure to the shark lab. I could use all the prayers I can get as I am raising the funds and preparing to go.

 If you feel led to help me out I will have my paypal added to this site where you can make donations and you can also email me with suggestions and even let me know if you would like to help me fund raise. I will be planning car washes and many other different fundraisers for this and could use the help if anyone feels led to team up with me. Also if you would like to help out in another way you can share this site and the fliers I will have done ASAP for donations and for work (house,yard,babysitting etc.,). $2030 is a big price but it's do able. Where the Lord leads He provides. I'm just trusting in the Lord for this. If not, maybe he has in mind a later time and all funds raised will be held in a separate shark lab and will go towards the shark lab as intended in the first place at that later time.
  So this is pretty much me in a nutshell and this is what is up currently in my life...

Hi! my name is Hannah!....and I am not afraid of sharks!