We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Latifah Al-Hazza. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Latifah below.

Latifah, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We love asking folks what they would do differently if they were starting today – how they would speed up the process, etc. We’d love to hear how you would set everything up if you were to start from step 1 today.

If I were to start over I wouldn’t wait. Some of these creators that I read about just took a hobby or even something they did when bored and turned it into a successful career. Growing up I kept myself so busy that I didn’t stop to think about how I could turn something I do everyday into a career. I also grew up thinking that no one would want to watch this or read about that, or that the media/market is already saturated with this so I shouldn’t bother.

Latifah, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am an Emmy Award-winning travel journalist and documentary filmmaker who graduated with journalism degrees from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (BS) and the University of Southern California (MS). I developed a knack for travel journalism when in high school. I attended a global studies and world languages academy in which we needed to present a ‘capstone project’ (similar to a thesis) in order to graduate. I decided to combine my love for travel and journalism. I traveled to Tanzania and produced a documentary on the school conditions in the country. From that project, I knew what I wanted to do with my college career. After graduating from graduate school, I interned with CNN Travel in Hong Kong where I was later hired. I was an editorial assistant for a few other outlets before I went freelance. I went freelance for more freedom when I write, more freedom with my time, and to launch a mother and daughter travel company with my mom. We created Femscape Sojourns to offer mothers and daughters the opportunity to bond in countries that they may be feel uncomfortable traveling to alone as females.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

COVID definitely made my mother and I have to pivot when it came to our travel company. We obviously had to pause our trips due to travel restrictions and it took us time to develop an audience again as many were hesitant to travel after restrictions were lifted. We are still in the process of rebranding it actually.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Truly being myself. I’ve always had a big imagination and I get to let that run wild with my career.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://femscapesojourns.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tifahtravels/