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Travel, Good Culture

Finding A Home In the World

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Tanyka Renee

Why Tanyka Renee Takes the Road Less Traveled

There is so much more to Tanyka Renee than her perfectly packed Louis Vuitton luggage, even though a glance through her Instagram feed will make you want to book a flight. She carefully curates and documents her global adventures, inspiring an audience of more than 300K followers, but her picture-perfect life didn’t start out that way. After growing up in New Britain, CT, where she was placed in foster care at an early age, Tanyka has defied the odds as well as society’s idea of Black women.

Tanyka is a true renaissance woman, having already traveled to 95 countries (we can only imagine how many passports she’s gone through). She is doing what she loves and it shows.

But her career path is as storied as her travel destinations. She has worked as a journalist, professional football player, model, social entrepreneur, holistic wellness practitioner, and marketing consultant, And now she’s added pilot to the list, yes you read that right, pilot!

Her story is a journey of self-discovery that led to her love for travel. Along the way, she healed from her past and gracefully built a platform that empowers women of all cultures. Tanyka dispels so many myths about black women all while taking us along on her journey filled with adventures and experiences. She’s creating a space for us to become what and who we really want to be. 📷

How did foster care impact your desire to travel?

TR: Foster care forced me to be independent, it also forced me to explore. There were times where I wasn’t happy at home, so I would jump on my bike and go to neighboring towns and people watch. That's where my love for travel began, it also fueled my passion for exploring different cultures. When going to school became overwhelming, I would skip and go to New York City. I’d stand outside the bus terminal and watch the people, it was fascinating. Eventually, I moved there. I went through this horrible breakup, and I lost myself. I was very confused. I didn't understand life and I didn’t understand why It didn’t work out between us. So, I decided to stop wallowing. I got up, put my apartment on Airbnb, and headed out to Southeast Asia. At the time that destination seemed very foreign to me. I had so many questions: Do they speak English? Will there be people there that looked like me? What about the possibility of racism? But I didn’t care. I just wanted to getaway. I went to Asia. I had lost myself, but through this trip, I also found myself. I did a lot of crying. But, I also met new people and tried new things. It was so empowering to figure out what I loved. Usually, when you travel with friends, you do what the group likes, but I was on my own, doing what I wanted to do. Sometimes that meant just sleeping all day and unpacking all of my emotions. It was when I discover that I love solo travel.

You are literally dispelling so many myths about black women and our ability to connect with others, as well as our fear of exploring cultures and ourselves. Your pictures and posts are so compelling on Social Media do you see yourself building a sisterhood to essentially become more powerful and useful to ourselves and our families?

TR: When I first started it was about sharing my journey with others. Sometimes my ego jumped in, and I'd say, “ Hey, it’s me!” But I am at a point in my life where I want to build a community. I want my social media to be less about me and more about us because we are all the same. I believe Black women should come together, support one another, and feel like family. I am working on what that is going to look like.

How did healing become part of your self-discovery process?

TR: I started to explore healing when I was a teenager. I was always very aware of my surroundings. Growing up in foster care, I had to analyze the people who were around me. I would take certain aspects (of their personalities) and say “I want to be like this person, I want to possess these characteristics.” And I would look at other characteristics and say, “ I don’t like these characteristics.” So I would figure out why certain things make me feel a certain way and I would process it. I had no choice. I was constantly in survival mode and had to process my emotions in order to survive. And I take that skill along with me when I travel.

How were you able to heal from your past?

TR: In my life, I am constantly healing. It has been a continuous journey of confronting traumas unpacking them and evolving. My biological mother had diabetes. She had me when she was 14, and I really didn’t have a close relationship with her until right before she passed away. During that time, I came to understand her more. Even though I didn’t have a close relationship with her, I realized that we were the same. She died from a diabetic coma and it could have been avoided. So I educated myself on nutrition and holistic healing by studying, ancient Indian medicine.

You are about empowering other people and other women of all races through travel and culture learning and educating one’s self Including yourself, speaking of education you are now a pilot?

TR: So the beginning of quarantine was very hard, I don’t like sitting still. My therapist suggested I take a class. She asked, “What is something you always wanted to do?” I answered, “I want to be a pilot.” I said it, but I was joking. She told me to go do it. I said, “How am I going to do this?” She told me to look into it. I found a school called Heritage Flight Academy. I signed up and it took me about a year to get my private pilot license. And I am still going to school.l I’m working on my instruments now. But I love flying. I can’t wait until I’m on a plane and someone is like do we have a pilot in the house?

You are literally becoming the best version of yourself. How do you dispel those myths about what it is to be a woman, a Back woman, and adventure travel?

The more you travel and meet other people of various backgrounds, the more you feel like you’re looking in the mirror. Women have the same universal challenges so, as we explore the world as women, and women of color, it’s important that we create camaraderie by building a sisterhood.