How I Became a Travel Writer

A commonly asked question with an unconventional answer

TL;DR:

🤡 I accidentally took a CrossFit class this week and I barely speak Spanish

How I became a travel writer (long story short, it was also an accident)

✊🏽 Black History Facts for Black History Month

🚨Jobs, Grant, and Networking Opportunities for WOC🚨

Sneak Peek at Bonus Newsletter 👀 (How to professionally handle a problematic interviewee)

🤡 I accidentally took a CrossFit class this week and I barely speak Spanish.

Dear god. My body. My poor, beautiful, sexy body hurts so bad. I’ve been trying to find a gym in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico (where I’m currently living), over the past few days. I’ve seen several recommendations for gyms and classes, so I decided to stop by Uniq. One of my acquaintances goes there and strongly recommended it so I stopped by one of the evening classes. All I knew was it was a gym that only had classes (no choose-your-own-adventure type stuff, like I’m used to). What I didn’t know was that I, unknowingly, signed up for CrossFit. Even more, I signed up for CrossFit in SPANISH! Y’all. I don’t speak Spanish! I mean, I try my best but I barely know what standard exercises are called in English. Now look at me. Internationally befuddled. I called my bestie, Jasmine, a few minutes before the class. She proceeded to laugh in my face while trying to tell me what proper squat form is so I don’t hurt myself. Did I, ultimately, end up hurting myself? Well, that’s subjective. Am I in need of hospitalization? No. Can I pick up a water bottle today? Also, no. Will I be going back?...Probably.

How I became a travel writer (long story short, it was also an accident)

I decided to test my hand at travel writing after I came back from my first ever solo trip. For my 28th birthday, I asked a bunch of friends and family if they wanted to go to Costa Rica with me and turn up. Initially everyone said yes but by the one-month-out mark from the trip, everyone backed out. You can read more about that in the article I wrote for USA Today. By the time I wrote this article I had 2 things going for me:

1. I already had a few articles published by other sources which meant it was easier to get published by new pubs

2. I knew that if I started travel writing,I might be able to get some tax deductions off of my trip (which is true for all travel writers).

That was my only travel piece I had for a while, until I saw a tweet by an editor for Departures, at the New York Times, looking for a very specific writer. There was a piece that needed to be written about American Ballet Theater’s return to NYC and he was looking for a writer who had an extensive dance background. For those who don’t know, I have an MFA from Harvard University and a certificate of completion from the Moscow Art Theater, in Russia. Through that program, I studied multiple forms of dance, including ballet under former Bolshoi performers and teachers. So, I shot my shot (sent him an email) and forgot about it. Weeks later, this editor is in my inbox asking to have a zoom call with me and, long story short, I got the job. I didn’t really know it at the time, but Departures is BIG in the travel industry and I was writing a whole feature for them (HERE it is, if you’re interested). I hung out with ABT staff, performers, the artistic director, a world-famous photographer, AND I almost met Misty Copeland (arguably, the world’s most famous ballerina, but this is her off-season). After the article came out, I was invited to the MET Opera house multiple times, as a thank you from ABT, and that article was how a vice president from a luxury PR company found me. Honestly, I didn’t respond to her emails for months lol.

Shortly after my ABT article came out, I landed a long term contract as a freelance social media manager for a company with over a million followers. It paid well and was, essentially, a full time job, so I had to put my budding travel writing career to the side. On the real-real, I didn’t even know how important that Departures article was until months later when my social media management contract ended. The day before my contract ended, that same vice president reached out to me with a luxury press trip opportunity. I had no idea what a “press trip” was but I had time to spare so I figured “why not?” Fast forward a few weeks to early November and suddenly I’m in a $1,300 per day ultra-luxe chalet on the slopes of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, with a private chef and personal driving service. It was on that trip where I was first called a “travel journalist” and I vividly remember looking around, trying to figure out where these journalists were.

a frame-by-frame reenactment of me

Since that trip, I’ve realized the best way to enter the travel industry (for me) was to have a niche that you can go on and on about. Because I have a hurricane in my head known as ADHD, I have several niches that I discovered were profitable. One of them being wine-meets-travel writing. There’s an infinite amount of niches and intersections that anyone can explore and write about, you just need to figure out which one resonates best with you and your readership (which includes editors). Now, I have several pieces in the works at various times and I’m working with a number of wonderful PR agencies, all because no one wanted to go on a birthday trip with me in 2020 lol.

If you have any more specific questions about freelance journalism, please ask them in the comments :)

✊🏽 Black History Facts for Black History Month

Did you know the origins of why Black people run when we laugh uproariously? Turns out it’s ✨ trauma ✨

Did you know that Sanite Belair was a young Haitian woman who gave her life for her country’s independence at 21? There’s a chance none of us would be free today without her. 

Did you know that Robert Smalls escaped slavery by commandeering a confederate ship at the age of TWELVE and, somehow, his story only gets crazier?

🚨Jobs, Grant, and Networking Opportunities for WOC🚨

Writer’s edition

The Vincent Anioke grant is accepting applications on a rolling basis for Black writers. Recipients will receive $300 per month. Applications open again on March 1, 2023, so mark your calendars!

My Time is offering a residency specific to writers who are parents of children 18 or under. They will also give a stipend for childcare costs and they do specify needing at least 1 recipient to be a POC. I don’t have personal connections with this org, but I want to believe they have the best intentions so I’d apply and ask a LOT of questions throughout the process.

A senior editor from Insider is looking for a number of people to write about their experience at Coachella. Are you over 50 and visit Coachella? Travel over 3,000 miles for the festival? Come with kids or a large group? Have any niche Coachella stories? Check out her pitch call and send her an email! This pitch call isn’t specific to WOC but I’d love to see our stories reflected here.

Know someone who should apply? Share this newsletter with them! There’s new grants and scholarships posted every week.

Sneak Peek at Bonus Newsletter 👀

(How to professionally handle a problematic interviewee)

As a journalist, I have to interview a LOT of people and 97% of the time they are wonderful human beings. Sometimes, though, you come across a WHOLE problem and navigating that situation can be very touchy. You don’t want to completely burn the bridge (because you never know who they know) and, depending on if they have a PR agent or not, you don’t want to get on a PR’s bad side because the industry is VERY small. I had my first YIKES situation on Tuesday and I’ll be writing about how I handled it. If you’re an aspiring journalist or writer, you’re definitely going to want to bring a notebook.

Also, I just found out that I’m going to be a judge for a Restaurant Week at a travel destination city in Florida this May! More on that tomorrow, though.