Battling restrictions and stereotypes associated with solo travel for women, Aakanksha Monga has made it big and become one of the fastest-growing travel influencers in the country
As a six-year-old, Aakanksha Monga took a trip to Paro in Bhutan with her parents and was mesmerised. “I remember exploring the town and enjoying every bit of it,” says the 24-year-old. Besides, hailing from an army family, travelling and exploring new places were almost second nature for her considering that when she was growing up she would call a new city her home every two years.
But when it came to solo travel or travel with friends, it was simply a no-no, the restrictions mostly because she was a girl. An economics graduate from Delhi’s Hindu College, she recollects how she once asked her parents if she could go on a trip with her college friends and was firmly told ‘no’. “This was my trigger. I wanted to travel, and hated to be put into this box of societal restrictions,” says Monga, who, with more than a million followers over Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn, is today among the fastest growing travel influencers in the country.
It started in 2020, when, soon after college, she set off on a trip to Udaipur using the money she had saved up on internships. Inspired by the content creators she followed, she shared the photographs and videos she took and realised it was something she enjoyed.