Umm, the Little Mermaid is more autobiography than fairy tale. Hans Christian Andersen wrote the Little Mermaid, as a love letter, to express his emotions upon hearing that the man he loved, Edvard Collins, was marrying – a woman.
In the story, the Little Mermaid represents Hans Christian Andersen, the man whose love was not returned. The Little Mermaid’s desire to be human, is Hans Christian Andersen’s impossible desire to be a woman.
Like the Little Mermaid, Hans Christian Andersen had a high soprano singing voice. In fact, as a young man there was so much speculation as to whether Andersen was a boy or a girl, a group of bullies pinned him down and pulled off his clothes to find out.
Andersen’s story of the Ugly Duckling was also autobiographical. Anderson was very tall, gangly and by all accounts “ugly”. The ugly duckling of a man turned his painful personal life into such charming fairy tales, people still think of him as a swan.
During his life, Hans Christian Andersen loved both men and women, including men of royalty, but he never married and died, very much alone. He left us with more than 160 fairy tales (that have been translated into 120 languages).
Personally, I think the Little Mermaid is everyone’s story. Wishing to be something we are not, is bound to hurt us.
Here is a good introduction to Hans Christian Andersen
https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/01/05/20/reviews/010520.20allent.html
