Monet has a full plate. She works full-time, she’s a wife and a mother of two beautiful children. If that’s not already enough to keep her schedule packed, she’s the writer of the family travel blog, The Traveling Child, where she offers advice for traveling families, women who need inspiration for mommy breaks, baecations, and more.
Recently, she became the author of the children’s book series The Traveling Child Goes To and the first one titled, The Traveling Child Goes to Rio de Janeiro, was just released on Amazon.
Her motto is simple: “If kids live there, kids can visit.”
Travel Noire had the chance to catch up with Monet to learn more about the inspiration behind the book series:
Travel Noire: Why did you choose Rio de Janeiro as your destination of choice for this book?
The Hambricks: Rio de Janeiro is one of our top 5 family trips. The city is filled with history, culture and so many things to do. It was the most recent trip we took after the idea of writing the book series came to light (thanks to my friend Andre Jones) and we got so much great feedback from our content on the trip I thought it would be a great way to kick off the “The Traveling Child Goes to” series.
TN: What do you hope to accomplish with your new book?
The Hambricks: If you type in family travel in Google Images, you’ll notice a common trend, families that look like mine are missing. Instead of complaining about it and letting Google images dictate the norm my hope is that expanding our positive images from the internet and into homes will make an even bigger impact. I want to help diversify the bookshelves of all families regardless of race but to also let little black girls and little black boys know the world is theirs and they can go every and anywhere they choose.
TN: What’s next for you and your family?
The Hambricks: The next book to be released is The Traveling Child Goes to Kenya, which we visited in September. After this book, I think I might do a poll to see what destination we’ve visited my audience wants to be next. As far as trips go, right now we have Morocco booked for Thanksgiving and Egypt booked for Spring Break. We’ll have to see what flight deals come up for some quick holiday weekend getaways or winter break.
You can follow the Hambricks’ adventures on Instagram or on Facebook.