I recently got to chat to the indomitable Nastasia – aka Dame Traveler. She’s a travel photographer and blogger, and with a passion for female travelers and an eye for beauty, she’s created and inspired an incredible community of strong, open-minded and passionate explorers. Here’s what she had to say on all things love, dating and bouncing back to your best self.
What do you do and why do you do it?
I’m the founder of Dame Traveler, a women’s travel blog and social community. My aim is to celebrate women who are out there doing EPIC things! Our goal is to inspire women to travel more, do more and be more.
What’s the best gift you ever got?
Vintage postcards from my husband with all of the adventures we will go on written on each postcard. Very special to me because of how much travel means to me.
What’s the worst gift you ever got?
Ah good question! I honestly cannot think of one!
What’s you advice for all things love, sex and dating?
Appreciate what you have. Gratitude and positivity are the golden keys to anything good in life.
What’s your go to pick me up?
A compliment and a smile 🙂
Tell us about your first heartbreak…
A long distance relationship that turned sour. He got accepted into law school and suddenly got more attention from females, blowing up his ego and of course, our relationship. Realized that I deserved more and so, I got out as fast as I could.
Tell us about a time you Bounced Back better than ever.
In 2013 I had just graduated from nursing school, was preparing to get married to my husband in Italy, studying for boards, looking for a job, lost old friends, made new ones, injured my back on the labor and delivery unit I worked on, fell into bed rest and lost my first nursing job. While I was on bed rest, I was restless and needed a project. And so, I started an Instagram account where I would curate beautiful photos of females traveling the world while also sharing my old travel shots. What started off as a hobby to cure my wanderlust, turned into my career and life’s work. I now travel and blog full-time for Dame Traveler and have already had amazing experiences stem from it such as a personal invite to the White House along with 40 other bloggers to help lift the ban on photography, features in Travel & Leisure and Vogue India print and digital issues and countless of other awesome opportunities. It just goes to show what can happen when you follow your heart, as cliche as that sounds. Stay strong. Stay positive. Stay beautiful.
