I’m Tracy Kaler,
a lifestyle and travel writer in New York City.
I aspired to be a professional ballet dancer. I was schooled to be an interior designer and had a 20-year career in the industry. In 2011, I shifted gears to become a writer and haven’t looked back.
My path to becoming a freelance journalist wasn’t a conventional one. The journey was filled with its share of unexpected twists and turns. And it took me a long time to get here. Read my story below.
I Fell in Love with New York
I was born in Reading, Pennsylvania––you know, the supposed outlet capital of the world. Growing up in a tiny borough called Mount Penn, I played hopscotch on my sidewalk and other silly street games like Mother May I and Red Light, Green Light. From these antics I learned valuable skills like screaming, running fast, standing on one foot, and asking permission.
I sported a hideous uniform including pleats, a Peter Pan collar, and eventually, polyester pants, during my decade-plus in parochial school. Long before I graduated from Reading Central Catholic, I knew that college wasn’t for me. Although I was a good student, member of the National Honor Society, and excelled at English, I was uncomfortable in a traditional classroom situation. I would rather have been twirling in a tutu or riding the Bieber bus back and forth to Manhattan, which I started doing at the age of 12. That’s when I fell in love with New York the first time.
Years Later, I Fell in Love with Food and Wine
Dancing my way through childhood at the Carol Ennis School of Dance, I later joined La Petite Ballet, which matured into the regional company, Berks Ballet Theater. I trained at the School of the Pennsylvania Ballet, Milwaukee Ballet, and numerous studios in New York including Steps and Ballet Arts/Studio 61 at Carnegie Hall. While I aspired to be a professional ballerina and danced the fairytale role of the Sugar Plum Fairy at the age of 14, I loved food way too much to pursue ballet as a career. I still love food (and wine) way too much. :)
I had a series of retail jobs in my late teens and early twenties that barely paid for my leotard and tights, so I decided to go to art school. After a bad break-up, I packed my bags and cat, pilfered used furniture, and moved to the City of Brotherly Love. I attended the Art Institute of Philadelphia to major in interior design and meet my first bottle of red wine. Let’s just say, that Cabernet Sauvignon had me at hello. I graduated with the Outstanding Achievement Award in Interior Design and asked myself, “What’s next?”
After a brief stint in London, I returned to Pennsylvania where I honed my residential design skills while working for a small business. A few years later, I left the Keystone State for Atlanta, Georgia. The South taught me how to prepare delicious food and renovate and decorate historic houses. I became an avid home cook, an oenophile and a gardener after living my life with a black thumb.
My Move to New York Changed Everything About My Life
When the recession hit in 2007, I fled Atlanta and headed north with a dog and two kitties in tow, landing in New York City, the place I’d dreamt of living since I was a child. During my early years in New York I worked in sales for interior designers. After getting laid off, I realized how much I disliked sales and decided to pursue writing. As it turns out, I should’ve listened to my mother all those years ago and gone to journalism school. Why are mothers almost always right?
Within a year or so of living in NYC, I started emailing updates to family and friends, sharing details about my exciting, newfound New York life. Those emails were the beginning of my journey to becoming a New York City blogger. Many of those articles appeared in a weekly column entitled “Moxy in Manhattan” that I wrote for Metro New York in 2012. You can find some of those stories about my early days in New York City on this page. I can thank my original New York blog: Tracy’s New York Life for sparking my freelance writing career. Although that blog is no longer online, I’ve updated some of those articles and they appear on ALL New York, the New York City blog on this website.
These days, I’m a freelance lifestyle and travel writer, editor, journalist, blogger, photographer––basically all of the above. Beyond my writing on this website, you can find my words and photos in publications like The Telegraph, Mansion Global, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, CNBC Travel and others. If you want to see samples of my writing in other outlets, head over to my publications page.
I am the co-author of New York: 48 Hours, published by National Geographic, and an active member of SATW (Society of American Travel Writers and NATJA (North American Travel Journalists Association). I live in Upper Manhattan.
Want to get in touch? Visit my contact page and message me.
And read more about me in this travel-focused interview I did for Sygic Travel.
