Jenna Carr

Social media influencer Travel Mum aka Jen uses social media to create her own travel business, which has amassed millions of followers and customers. How did she do it?

Travel Mum aka Jen is an experienced traveler and founder of the website and social media platforms "The Travel Mum" which have amassed a large, engaged and rapidly growing following. As an expert in budget travel, Jen uses her energetic personality to share tips and tricks that help and inspire her audience. When it comes to cheap travel advice, Jen is a go to figure in the social media space.

Her frequent viral posts have gained the attention of the press with articles featured in news outlets such as The Daily Mail, The Sun, The Mirror and The New York Times. The cost of living crisis and increasingly tight budgets mean now more than ever people are looking for advice to cut costs and get the most out of their money. Jen is passionate about helping people travel and have memorable experiences, whatever their income.

Jen set up her website to help people book their own DIY holidays - booking flights and accommodation separately. It has quickly acquired over 57,000 sign ups gaining the interest of some of the biggest travel companies. Jen has been working on a new and updated website in partnership with some of these companies and it is due for release later in the year.

Jen grew up on a council estate in South Yorkshire. She has wonderful childhood memories of caravan holidays and the occasional budget trip abroad. These experiences helped her to understand that lots of money isn’t necessary to make great memories. Growing up she aspired to be a Doctor but was often told to have more realistic goals. No one in her family had ever been to university. She worked multiple jobs whilst studying for her A levels and her immense determination paid off when she was offered a place at Sheffield Medical School. Prior to starting university she used her savings to go on a three month solo trip to South East Asia. She had a very limited budget but managed to make it work. It was here that her passion for travel really started to blossom.

Jen worked as an NHS doctor for 10 years, predominantly in General Surgery. During this time she was able to combine her love of travel and medicine whilst working as an expedition medic in Mexico, Colombia and Indonesia. Her medical skills and enthusiastic personality gained her a place as a participant on a 2016 Channel 4 reality show "Eden" - during this time she lived in the wilderness of Scotland where each participant had a specific skill to help set up a community from scratch. This experience was life changing as she realised how much she valued people and experience over money and continuous career progression. She cut down on her surgical work and started traveling regularly.

Jen became a mum in 2019 and was determined to continue traveling as a family. Her son Leo had his first passport by the time he was two weeks old. She started posting videos of their travels to social media which quickly gained popularity. People wanted to know how she found such cheap travel and how she traveled with a baby - from this curiosity "The Travel Mum" was born. In early 2022 she took a break from the NHS to focus on her family and ‘The Travel Mum’, and she hasn’t looked back.

Jen is also a keen advocate for the difficulties women face with infertility and miscarriage, openly sharing her own journey to baby number two which is still ongoing. She feels women are left to work through these difficult situations in silence and wants to change this.