My name is Carolyn Ash and I’m the founder and CEO of #afreeblackgirl, a company dedicated to inspiring women to get free, using travel as their/our motivation. Now, before I go on, let me stop here and ask: Who wants to get free? Raise your hand!

Some random but important facts about me

I grew up in Denver, Colorado. I spent nearly every summer and Christmas break with my maternal grandmother, aunts, uncles and cousins in Los Angeles until I went off to college. I started flying on an airplane by myself, on a regular basis, from Denver to L.A. when I was about 4 years old.

I’ve always loved — no, needed — to write. I get that from both my parents. There was never a shortage of paper and pens in our house. We all seemed to be deeply connected to the physical act of writing. More than anything growing up, even more than dolls or toys, I just wanted pretty paper.

Apparently, individuals born under my astrological sign are naturally drawn to beauty and have a flair for the artistic. I love music (I sing and used to play the violin in my youth), theater, dance and visual art. I’m obsessed now with photography, my new hobby. I love a beautiful sunset.

The #afreeblackgirl story

In late 2015, I starting making plans to do something big and scary in the summer of 2016. I wanted — no, needed — to travel internationally and solo. If I actually accomplished this scary goal, I thought, it could change my life forever. And it did.

My inspiration: I was working at an elementary school in the San Francisco Bay Area at the time and many of the students, staff and their families traveled at least once a year somewhere outside the U.S., often not as tourists but rather to visit relatives in other countries. I started thinking about how these young children seemed to travel across geographical borders and boundaries with such ease. I remembered from my own youth how traveling internationally a few times in high school with fellow students and adults wasn’t scary for me either at that stage in my life. But then I grew up and somehow started playing life “safe.”

Imagine going through life with the free spirit of your inner child trapped inside an adult mind that has decided that freedom is too risky. Something finally shifted in me as I watched these children where I worked in the Bay Area. I wanted their free spirit. My prediction was that travel could be the key to unlock that free spirit in me, in every area of my life. So, there was a solo trip to London in June 2016 and then again in December, along with a few days in Paris. Then there was “April in Paris” in 2017, mixed with a day trip to Amsterdam, and solo travel to Lisbon and Porto, Portugal for Christmas Break. In March 2018, I traveled solo to Kuala Lumpur and Malacca, Malaysia and made my way to Singapore as well during that Southeast Asia trip. I returned to Portugal for Christmas 2018 and spent the rest of my holiday break between Sevilla, Córdoba, Granada and Cádiz, Spain. In July 2019, I spent two weeks with a group in Accra, Kumasi, Cape Coast, Elmina and Agona Duakwa, Ghana.

I think about travel constantly, whether it be to places I’ve never visited in my home state of Colorado, other parts of the U.S. or countries thousands of miles away. Traveling and just thinking about travel reminds me how far I’ve come. As I’ve discovered new parts of the world around me, I’ve simultaneously discovered new parts of myself. I’m #afreeblackgirl now, and I love my inner freedom journey!