Free Coconut Staff Spotlight: Blog Curator Ava Daly

Hello my Travel Girl Gang!

All of us here on the Free Coconut team continuously chat about our values as not only a brand and a vision, but as women and individuals! It keeps us in tune with ourselves, the Free Coconut lifestyle, and of course the most important people to us: YOU.

The first step in living young, wild, and free is accepting your authentic self and all that comes with you! Your past, your present, your future and all of the little moments in between. Learning about what you love, embracing what brings you happiness, and celebrating every part of yourself.

We understand that this can be a daunting task, so in order to make you feel more comfortable, this week for The Chatty Coconut Blog, we're going to be doing Staff Spotlights for every member of the Free Coconut team.

Today, we're going to be highlighting: ME😍

Hi, I'm Ava Daly! You may already know me as the Blog Curator for The Chatty Coconut, the official blog of Free Coconut which I am forever and always honored to write for. However, I always say that the best writers, and more importantly the best people, are the one's who practice honesty and authenticity.

So, with that taken into consideration, I think it's important for you my travel girl gang to get to know me not only as Ava Daly the blogger, but also, as Ava (AGD, Aves, Kid Lulu); the always chaotic, inherently good humored, and hopefully charming woman trying to navigate her 20's as best she can!

I was born in Baltimore, Maryland during the midst of an extremely intense snow storm (people joke that this says a lot about my personality, and honestly, I sort of get it)😉

When I was about a year and a half, my dad, the great Sean Daly who I shoutout fairly often, got a job as the music critic for the Tampa Bay Times, moved us to Saint Petersburg, Florida, and the rest was history! 

Growing up I was a ferociously angsty teenager who only ever wanted to write and travel. Today, I still only want to write and travel, but I am slightly less angsty! I graduated from Saint Petersburg High School (shoutout class of '22) and took a gap year to perform debauched actions all across the country. From New York to California I was spending all of my hard-earned hostessing money, kissing frogs I probably should not have, and decorating my body with tattoos thus making my ancestors roll over in their graves. It was the best! But alas, my love for writing superseded all else so after that year, I moved up to Tallahassee to get to work on my Bachelor's Degree at Florida State University (GO 'NOLES)

I am a Creative Writing major, and an Education minor, who hopes to shape the lives of the next generation on the road to winning the Pulitzer Prize! My family and I joke that I'll win it before my dad, which he fully supports 100% being that he is the ultimate girl dad.

I first met Stephanie, our lovely Free Coconut owner (and my boss) when I was going through one of the hardest times of my young adult life. I was lost, frustrated, and exhausted of myself, and the world around me. She gave me the platform and the community to write and in-turn connect with people, which is all I've ever wanted.

That brings us to today! I am now a junior in college, Blog Curator for Free Coconut, and most importantly a daughter, sister, and friend. I have never been more confident, hopeful, and excited about life and what the world has to offer than I am today, and that I can assure you is a blessing I do not take for granted.

• The key to my heart is a bouquet of sunflowers and a giant bag of seafood boil coated in old bay seasoning🌻🍤 
• I have seven tattoos! (a globe, a typewriter, a champagne bottle, XOXO in my childhood best friends handwriting, a sun with a moon inside for my sister, the New York City skyline, and a book with hearts flying out of it)✒
• My favorite book of all time is Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann📚
• I am German & Irish (basic, I know)🇩🇪🇮🇪 
• My little sister Maya is my best friend👭
• I have had my writing published across a multitude of categories (Free Verse Poetry, Arts & Entertainment, Personal Essay, Fashion & Travel etc.)✏
• I was nominated Best Blogger for Creative Loafing's Best of The Bay Awards (I'll get 'em next year)✊
• My favorite holiday is Halloween🎃
• I have traveled more times solo, than I have with my friends or family🌏
• My dream travel destination is to go on Safari in Africa!🐯

Being able to curate for The Chatty Coconut Blog, has been one of the greatest privileges and surprises of my career thus far! I simply cannot wait to keep writing for you and connecting with you my travel girl gang. Supporting women will forever and always be the reason I do this💖

As always, Happy Traveling!

Sending you all of the X's and O's,

Ava