We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sierra Larson-Baker a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Sierra, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
The most meaningful project I have ever worked on (so far) has been my group trip to England. I’ve always wanted to visit England, specifically Oxford, and in October 2024 I finally had the chance to do it! Not only did I get to visit my great-grandfather’s homeland, but I got to tour with some of my online friends!
I have been blogging about living barefoot since 2010, and I’ve built up quite a following through my Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube pages. I have so many connections all over the world through my online presence. I love meeting my online friends, but I don’t often get an opportunity to do so. My trip to England as the perfect opportunity to meet some of my European connections!
I opened up my trip to my followers to join me, for as short of a time as one activity or for as long as the entire trip. I was able to put together a tight-knit tour of Oxford, England with some of my online connections. Together, we visited the beautiful Oxford Botanical Gardens, the incredible Oxford Castle and Prisons, and the unforgettable Ashmolean Museum.
Sierra, 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?
My journey into the world of barefoot living began as a personal exploration of freedom and connection to nature. Over time, this evolved into a passion for promoting the benefits of a barefoot lifestyle, both physically and mentally.
Through my social media platforms, I share my experiences, challenges, and insights related to barefoot living. I aim to educate and inspire others to consider the advantages of freeing their feet, fostering a deeper connection with the environment, and embracing a more natural way of movement.
What sets my content apart is the authentic and personal approach I bring to the barefoot community. I document my daily life, adventures, and the practical aspects of living without shoes, offering a genuine perspective that resonates with many. I’m particularly proud of the supportive and engaged community that has formed around my journey, where individuals feel encouraged to share their stories and take steps toward their own barefoot experiences.
For those new to my content, I invite you to explore the world from a barefoot perspective, challenge societal norms, and discover the joys and benefits of connecting more intimately with the ground beneath us.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
I owe so much of my success to serendipity. At 19 years old, I was participating in an amateur modeling contest and one of the people who was following the contest happened to notice that I was barefoot in most of the photos. Through email correspondence with him, I learned about the barefoot movement and found the Facebook group Society for Barefoot Living. I met people in that group who gave me a platform. I got hired to write weekly articles about living barefoot. Those articles gained traction, gathering thousands of views, and eventually I decided to start my own blog. As social media grew in popularity, I expanded to wherever people asked me to be online. Any platform that someone recommended for me, I tried it out – Tumblr, Pinterest, Patreon, TikTok, Cameo – if it existed and people wanted to connect with me there, I made a profile. I had a wide but shallow social media net for over a decade. It wasn’t until I decided to focus my energies on Instagram and Facebook that I really took off though. My best advice for anyone trying to build their social media presence is to try every platform to find what works best for your audience. Post quality content, engage with your audience, and stick with it. You probably won’t see success at first, but you’ll find your people and build genuine connections along the way.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
My creative journey is deeply rooted in my personal experiences with disability and mental health. I live with multiple chronic medical conditions, and for a long time, I struggled with bipolar disorder in a way that almost consumed me. There were times when I felt completely lost—disconnected from myself, from others, from any sense of stability. But through years of therapy, self-reflection, and intentional community-building, I found my way back to myself.
Community has been everything in that process. The connections I’ve made, both online and in person, have been a huge part of my healing. That’s why I’m so passionate about creating spaces where people can feel safe, understood, and empowered to embrace who they are—whether that’s through barefoot living, mental health advocacy, or just finding joy in the little things.
Right now, I’m especially excited about an upcoming group trip to Morocco in April 2026. It’s something I’ve been dreaming of—an opportunity to build community in a new and immersive way, sharing adventure, culture, and connection. For me, everything comes back to that: finding yourself through connection, through experience, through community. That’s what drives me every day.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @sierrathebarefoot
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/19wGMagdCN/?mibextid=wwXIfr
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@barefootsierralarson?si=DcIkwrWLYeBGS5yK
Image Credits
Sierra Larson-Baker