About the Author

Hello, my name is Emma Bates. I am from England 13 years old and I have only one dream: to train dolphins or killer whales for a living when I am older. I have wanted to do this since I was five years old, all the way back in 2005. At the moment, the things I need to work on in order to accomplish this goal include improving my underwater swimming skills (breath-holding, free diving etc.), working on my public speaking and drama skills, spending as much time as possible interacting with marine mammals, getting a CPR and volunteering at aquariums. When I am older, I plan on going to university and getting a degree in marine biology. Then, I can move to the USA or France (in which case I need to practice my French skills too) and apply for a job as a dolphin or killer whale trainer. That's basically my entire life plan in a few sentences.

Apart from the obsession with cetaceans, I am a normal 13-year-old girl. I'm not really into makeup and fashion, but I like being with my friends. I'm into photography, videography, photo editing and video editing. I have YouTube and Flickr accounts, as well as a DeviantART account too. I'll share links for them further down the page. I'm also into drawing, swimming, water polo and ice skating. I'm quite nerdy (anyone will tell you that) and I'm in top set for everything at school, except PE. I've been to some amazing countries, including Spain, USA, Malta, Switzerland and more. I speak a fair bit of French, a bit of Spanish and also little bits of Chinese and Serbo-Croatian. In my spare time, I edit videos, edit photos and I go to lots of aquariums or go scuba diving on a weekend. And that was just a little bit about my life!

Random facts:

• When I was little, I ate a magazine, including one of the staples
• I've been in the world's only underwater lift
• I saw six baby common dolphins in the wild in Ireland
• I think alligators are quite cute
• My favourite TV program is Primeval

www.youtube.com/user/orcadorable
www.flickr.com/photos/orcadorable
www.orcadorable.deviantart.com