Lexie Alford (lexielimitless)
Lexie Alford (lexielimitless), a 21-year-old from Nevada City, California, just broke the Guinness World Record for the youngest person to travel to every country by over three years (the previous record-holder was 24). The last of her 196 sovereign countries was North Korea, which she made it to on May 31 (my birthday!).
Lexie writes on her blog that she’s “been traveling for as long as I can remember with my family who started a travel agency.” By the time she graduated from high school (two years early) and received an Associates degree from a local college, she had traveled to 72 countries. She decided to break the record to inspire the people around her, especially young women. She was determined to show everyone that the world isn’t as scary as the media portrays it to be and that there’s kindness everywhere.
Her journey began as the child of travel agents who wanted her to see the world. More recently, she says, her travels have been self-funded. She says she has utilized points and miles for her flights and stayed in cheap accommodations like hostels, sometimes even creating content for hotels in exchange for accommodation.
You can see Lexie’s feat in photos on her Instagram account, where she has 78,000 followers. For even more, here’s a story Forbes did on Lexie.
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