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Em Marie

Michaela Atiae, Staff Writer

March 18, 2026

60 Seconds with the Travel Pros

“From my childhood to my coming of age, who I am today is shaped by the people, places, and experiences I have encountered.”

At the age of nine, Em Marie had lived in every time zone across the U.S. By fifteen, Em’s appetite for travel grew past state borders, and modeling contracts landed her in Asia with nothing but a suitcase — for five years. Her high school years were spent exploring different countries, swapping her environment every two months.

Being a nomad was never a foreign concept.

Em Marie is a traveling artist, having visited 20+ countries. While many of her adventures are rooted in modeling, the ballet dancer turned Vogue cover girl found deeper cultural experiences during her free time abroad. She learned the art of aerial yoga, holds a camera by her side to capture each moment, and publicly chronicles her insights and ambitions as she moves through different homes.

Em tells us about finding confidence in the unknown and what it means to define home when you’re constantly on the move.

Your yoga practice has taken you from Malaysia to Nepal to New York. What drew you to practice in those regions rather than remain in New York?

Ironically, Malaysia reintroduced me to yoga after I met a 90-year-old Indian man who described breathwork as magic. He moved as fluidly as a dancer in their prime. He taught one of the most challenging classes I had ever taken. Yoga became more than a sequence of poses after working with him; it became art. I took a teacher training course in aerial yoga and began teaching small classes during my time in Kuala Lumpur, which deepened my love for such a safe environment.

My feet had been pointed in that direction for years, and with yoga I was finally able to take that step.

The way he talked about breathwork, movement, and the journey to a mental state stirred something inside me, grounding me. Asia had already drawn me into its spiritual side. At the same time, I loved exploring the beliefs across its diverse cultures. Yoga expanded my understanding and made it a physical practice I could explore both on and off the mat. Nepal had always been a dream for me because of its connection to nature and its free-spirited culture. That said, I never thought yoga teacher training would be the reason I’d find my way there.

Years later, I continued practicing yoga, and while living in New York, I hit a mental wall. I understood this feeling and knew I needed to find my way back to Asia; It’s always been a place I’ve felt naturally at home. I felt robotic in New York, constantly getting sick, feeling rundown, and facing burnout. I finished my 200-hour certification in New York, which was incredibly pivotal and confirmed my need to deepen my practice. Nepal was somewhere to escape the noise of daily life. It is renowned for its history with hippies and explorers, as well as its rich culture. It felt as if my feet had been pointed in that direction for years, and with yoga I was finally able to take that step.

Do you think your nomadic upbringing (before modeling) shaped your openness to travel later in life?

Completely. Growing up, I was very timid and quiet. Hence, the concept of change was frightening every time we moved as a family, which was often for my dad’s job. From the age of nine, I would leave home for summers away to study at dance companies around the country. It gave me the tools to step out of my comfort zone when my lifestyle took me out of the US for years through high school, while living out of a backpack. New countries weren’t so loud and daunting; they became places to explore with curiosity.

I became familiar with the rolling tides of life and how they change who you are. I believe this is a necessity to embrace, or else we would be in utter fear of how much they change. That said, I had to work hard to find a balance between the simplicity of a nomadic lifestyle and the comfort (or discomfort) of settling in one place.

Many parents aim to give their children a strong sense of place rooted in one location. Do you think that can sometimes limit a child’s appetite for adventure as they grow older?

Not necessarily. I truly do respect families who create a world grounded in one place they call home… I would love to provide that for my future kids someday. I’d want to incorporate the ideologies my family projected when I coped with changing surroundings as a little girl. They taught me that “home” is not simply within familiar walls. It’s within the arms of those who welcome you as you are.

At the end of the day, it’s about introducing children to new ideas, encouraging them to ask questions about how the world works, along with having consistent conversations about how diverse life is and how each geographic region in the world has a productive element in how our society grows and how beautiful each one is. I am incredibly grateful that travel fell into my lap through work, as I didn’t come from a family that could afford travel.

I had experienced living in every time zone across the country by the age of nine, and our moves around the US were all coincidental. Throughout my childhood, it evoked my fascination with the world. Each time we uprooted our lives, I was in numerous classes that forced me to learn and adapt to everyone and everything around me… That immersion in art or culture of any kind doesn’t require a huge life change, but it does open perspective. So I don’t think a person, whether you’re sixteen or sixty, should feel limited to their front door based on how they were raised or the ties they have to home, but rather on how they explore life on either side of the wall they live with.

What is a unique experience abroad that you still think about fondly?

It’s hard to choose.

I reflect on visiting Sri Lanka often. It was a travel warning 4 and on alert for terrorism after an attack. Something I was unaware of due to flying in from China, and the firewall hadn’t shown me that information. The country had felt like everyone was walking on eggshells. We ended up on a trek and stumbled upon a group of monkeys nursing their young. Each mother had two protectors guarding her back, counting at least 12.

Seeing the country in shock had made the world feel harsh, but observing such a tender moment made the clock stop. I just sat on a nearby rock, watching them for an hour. They were so human and loving in how they cared for their babies. It was the quietest, raw moment I’ve been lucky enough to experience. Although, I do miss trekking by foot through the jungles of Laos with mahouts and their free-roaming elephants. That was also truly surreal.

In your Substack piece “Home,” you write that home is the sanctuary you create for yourself, no matter where you are. Choosing to be brave “in the unknown” helps build sense of home more than a permanent address. Can you expand on how embracing bravery in your travels has deepened your understanding of what home means?

Oh God, I love writing about this. In complete transparency, it’s constantly evolving. The courage to embrace the unknown still comes with angst most of the time. It’s a very human tendency to “home” or nest wherever we go. I believe that traveling, you meet others who do the same, and within those deep connections, there is an acceptance of the transient nature of feeling a sense of peace in people you meet for short periods of time. It’s cliché, but it very much feels like flirting in each place you go. Locations you visit hold the faces that bring out different parts of you, and yet you cannot stay.

What destination is next on your bucket list?

It will probably take some time to plan, but next on my bucket list would have to be Greenland. I want to see wild narwhals and the Northern Lights (just so I can live out my childhood dream).