Catherine Kwon

Last week, I was in the Branford Dining Hall when a girl asked me, “Are you la-clar-dot-tee-ex-en?”

To be fair, I did the same thing to Nathan Chen when I was a freshman. And honestly, being able to approach strangers is an admirable trait. Still, it was strange to have my entire identity distilled into eight characters. It’s almost like @clar.txn exists as its own entity, while I’m just Clarissa, a girl from Nebraska.

For context, I started making reels last summer documenting my solo backpacking trip through Southeast Asia. But it was never my intention to become a “travel influencer,” a term I still resist. People have suggested for years that I should start vlogging or a YouTube channel, but I always imagined it would feel “fake” to be an influencer follower.

That all changed when I was in Vietnam. I befriended a TikToker—Maya shouts—in my hostel, who told me she wasn’t posting for likes or comments, but rather as a documentation of her youth, so she’d have something to look back on when she be old Maya convinced me that since I already have over 17,000 photos and videos in my camera roll, why not share them online with curious friends? Plus, I needed a silly activity to occupy myself with during layovers.

Suddenly, thousands of people were watching my silly videos and asking for advice. There is never a moment of peace in my head. Found an aesthetic hiking trail? I need to geotag it. Have you eaten a delicious beetle at the street market? Let me post a food rate. Bar crawl with a new friend? The whole world needs to know.

It’s addictive — I can’t stop traveling and posting about it.

Even at Yale, influence is a subtle vortex—the more I share, the more I feel absorbed.

I now have this travel column, which probably wouldn’t exist if I hadn’t started being too public on the internet. I was recently added to a “Creators Club” on Slack, where grown women exchange tips on promoting yourself as a brand. Through Discord, I was sought out to download TikTok’s newest lifestyle app for “student wellness” posts.

I’m not exactly against any of this. I guess the “influence phase” just took a bigger role in my life than I originally expected. I would never have called myself a “traveler” before this summer, but now, with the evidence of my online adventures, it has shaped my identity as a backpacker with the lofty goal of visiting every country.

Realistically, I don’t expect anyone to pack a backpack and leave just because a girl told them to. The nomadic life is tiring and definitely not for everyone. We are all meant to go at our own pace.

So why am I posting? Because it’s fun! It allows me to stay connected with my friends and meet like-minded people from all over the world.

Basically, I don’t think this period of influence has changed who I am at all. As Maya said, it’s a digital journal of sorts. I love traveling and have always loved traveling. The only difference now is that thousands of strangers follow me along my journey – and it’s comforting to know when I’m alone.