{"id":295639,"date":"2025-05-09T18:27:44","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T23:27:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlslife.com\/?p=295639"},"modified":"2025-05-09T21:55:26","modified_gmt":"2025-05-10T02:55:26","slug":"meet-the-17-year-old-rockstar-who-just-swam-the-cook-strait","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlslife.com\/trending\/295639\/meet-the-17-year-old-rockstar-who-just-swam-the-cook-strait\/","title":{"rendered":"Maya Merhige conquered the Cook Strait, withstood thousands of jellyfish stings then went to her prom"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Seventeen-year-old Maya Merhige just became one of the youngest people *ever* to conquer the Cook Strait<\/a>, a notoriously tough stretch of ocean between New Zealand\u2019s North and South Islands, swimming about 27 miles (!!!) for over 14 hours in icy, unpredictable waters. Imagine swimming the length of nearly 500 football fields, but in freezing waves…while being stung by jellyfish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jellyfish? Oh yeah, you heard that right. Maya was stung so many times she literally lost count, but instead of panicking, she told herself, \u201cOut of sight, out of mind\u201d and powered through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this wasn\u2019t Maya\u2019s first big splash. She\u2019s been making waves (literally) for years. At 14, she became the youngest woman to swim the Catalina Channel. At 15, she was the youngest person to cross Hawaii’s Ka\u2019iwi Channel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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@katabaticcharters<\/a><\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Maya got her start at just 9 with Swim Across America<\/a>, a group that hosts big swims for charity\u2014and her latest swim just raised a whopping $33,000 for pediatric cancer research and patient care (bringing her lifetime total to over $150,000!). Talk about using your talents to change the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And guess what? She\u2019s not stopping anytime soon. Maya dreams of becoming the youngest person ever to complete the Oceans Seven<\/a>, the ultimate open-water challenge. And while the Olympics have crossed her mind, she\u2019s following her own path for now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Maya, it\u2019s not about being the fastest; it\u2019s about showing up, finishing strong and proving that you can do anything. Her story is the ultimate reminder for every girl: whether you\u2019re facing a math test, a tough friendship moment or your own big dream, you\u2019ve *got* this\u2014you\u2019re stronger than you know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Totally wowed by Maya\u2019s journey? Keep the inspo going with these GL picks:<\/strong>
\ud83c\udf0aAdd this teen-founded bookstore to your must-visit list<\/a>
\ud83c\udf0aHow to make reading a priority when you just don\u2019t have time<\/a>
\ud83c\udf0aYour ultimate Sunday to-do list<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ready to chase *your* big dreams? Let us know on IG @girlslifemag<\/a>!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Top and slider image: @chasing_channels<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seventeen-year-old Maya Merhige just became one of the youngest people *ever* to conquer the Cook Strait, swimming about 27 miles for over 14 hours in icy, unpredictable waters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1866,"featured_media":295637,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[296,305,307,283],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-295639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","category-get-inspired","category-in-the-news","category-life"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlslife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlslife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlslife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlslife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1866"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlslife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/girlslife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlslife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlslife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlslife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlslife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}