In today’s times, that is quite literally a job, and she does well at it. Her followers watch her photos for travel pics. She promotes everything from hotels to restaurants to fashion — if it has to do with travel, she shares it with the world.

“It’s a unique job for sure, but I love it and in this day and age to do what you love is amazing,” Johnston shared with the OBSERVER.

Born in Chautauqua County to an American father and an Australian mother, she began her travels at an early age.

Born in the United States and after living in Jamestown a bit, they moved to Australia for six years to “be fair to both families,” Johnston stated. Around age 12, she moved back to Fredonia around where she stayed and graduated from in 2010. Though she enjoyed school, she had a hard time adjusting, as she grew up mostly in Adelaide, Australia where her mom originally was from.

Submitted Photo Jessica Johnston stands in a tulip field in Holland.

Following graduation she went on to attend SUNY Fredonia and obtained a degree in communications working with the LEADER school newspaper for a couple of years.

“I soon went on to Thailand where I worked with animal shelters that helped with strays,” Johnston added. “I knew then I wanted to turn my love of traveling into a full time gig.”

She started out gaining a consistent income doing social media, writing for blogs or photography. Eventually she began to reach out to companies in hopes of forming partnerships. She built a kit of her work and shopped it around to anyone who was interested.

“I reached out to a lot of people and put my name out there, sent them my media kit and just said ‘this is my audience, this is what I do, this is what I love, it would be great if we could partner together somehow.’ And then they would usually get back to me with either ‘yeah we’d love to’ or ‘no, you’re not the right fit for our company,'” Johnston said. “These days however a lot of companies now reach out to me, they’ll email me. A lot of times it’s trips from hotels and tourism boards.”

When asked how Instagram influencing works she explained how advertising has changed in the social media world. In the past, a company would for example create a watch. They would then design a million dollar ad campaign to sell that watch which might include magazine ads, billboards and commercials. The company would then hope that due to their efforts they would sell perhaps, 10,000 watches to the 2.5 million people who saw the ads. Today, rather then spend millions on a broad reach campaign, the company will partner with someone like Johnston. They send her the watch to wear in a few photos that she then posts on her Instagram account. The company then shares her photos with their followers who then decide to follow her as well as pay her for each photo in which the watch is featured. Now, marketing to the narrow audience they know their product will reach, they sell 30,000 watches to the 100,000 people who view her photos. This is the new method of marketing and it costs significantly less.

As she built up her reputation and connections she now has over 240,000 followers and travels everywhere with her trips often paid for by tourism boards and hotel chains.

On a trip to the Pink Palace Hotel in Bermuda, she worked with the Hamilton Princess Hotels. They covered her airfare and accommodations while there and in exchange, they gave her a set of deliverables that she then had to post so many posts and Instagram stories of.

“It’s cool when these jobs come up, because it allows me to continue to pursue my passion for traveling and also make an income from sharing about my travels,” Johnston shared.

Currently, when Johnston isn’t traveling, she resides with her fiancee in England. To follow her on her travels visit her Instagram at backpackwithme.