Girls Love Travel Is a Bully Who Shames Women That Think Differently Than Her Internet

Haley Woods, the owner, founder and moderator of the Girls Love Travel group on Facebook falsely advertises her group as an inclusive women's empowerment group and a safe place where women who love to travel can be a part of a group that is both respectful, safe and inclusive of all women. This is a huge lie and couldn't be further from the truth. Haley Woods is a political propagandist who encourages and condones her members to bully, shame and condemn any women who believe differently than she does. Her group is marketed as a travel-related group but at least once weekly personal agenda posts are made regarding her political agenda regarding highly sensitive topics such as race and cultural appropriation. Topics that she argues are related to travel but the content of the topics are completely politically motivated and divisive, make many members uncomfortable because if they say anything that doesn't fit Haley Wood's narrative they will be banned and the topics are not about engaging with other cultures while traveling. They are topics such as telling people how they should and shouldn't feel regarding "culturally appropriated" Halloween costumes on Halloween (nothing to do with travel) and if you post anything at all questioning or disagreeing with her or the other members who feel the same way as she does, not only does she publically shame you in the thread, along with dozens of her militant members, she will block you from the group and continue to allow you to be talked about after you have been removed. I have personally experienced this treatment from her and have all of the screenshots to prove it. 

I will start with the website. Haley Wood's private Facebook Group, Girls Love Travel, posts topics about race and Haley claims to be a socially tolerant person of all races yet her website only features a couple women that are not Caucasian. The rest of the women on her website are all Caucasian and the same with most of her group photos. The reason I am bringing this up is that she has shamed women in her private facebook group for not wanting to discuss topics in there such as racial tension and cultural appropriation (also have screenshots to prove it). She posts topics about things such as cultural appropriation yet in the cover photo of her group is a photo of her in South Asian attire with henna on her arms which, by her very definition, is cultural appropriation because she is not South Asian. Haley Woods would appear to believe she is above the very values she tries to force all of her members to share and would appear to feel justified in shaming the ones who either do not feel the topic is appropriate for the group or they don't share the same ideas and values as her. These people are immediately removed. I will note, these women her and her members shame and remove are not bad people, they are not racists, they are not bigots and they are not even rude. They are simply regular women who don't feel politically charged, highly sensitive topics have a place in a group that is advertised as a women's empowerment group for women who love travel. It is false advertisement. 

The group is advertised as a travel group and there is no warning telling people it is a politically charged group with many women who all believe the same way politically and are intolerant to those who don't share those views. So women joining this group, looking for a safe place or a non-political place they can enjoy travel-related conversations are met with Haley Wood's political narrative and agenda and eventually her wrath of full-on shaming and blocking if they aren't on board with her "virtues". To me and others who have seen the screenshots, it appears that what Haley Woods does is considered virtue signaling and it appears insincere and narcissistic as there is no reason to constantly be bringing up race in a group of women who are all of different races and cultures and are already getting along just fine. The motivations behind her doing so, she claims is to "teach respect" to her members. This is both condescending and belittling as all of the women in this group are adults and did not join her group to be lectured to by someone who views themselves as a modern-day Jesus with a messiah complex. Nobody asked for her opinion on politically charged topics and stating you would rather not see political posts in the group, is considered offensive and disrespectful by her and all the moderators. They have made comments that elude to the fact that she actually enjoys stirring the pot so that she can "weed out" all of the people who do not think the way she does. 

My advice is to not do business with Haley Woods or Girls Love Travel unless you want to get involved with someone who burns people that she doesn't even know or has never met before. She is not someone that can be seen as a reliable source to represent a brand, especially one that preaches empowerment, as she is an online bully and has no problem burning bridges. If you don't want your brand to be associated with any political agenda and you want to stay neutral than do not do business with Haley Woods or Girls Love Travel. She is pushing a specific narrative and has no problem with her and her members accusing every woman who feels differently than they do as racist, ignorant, not culturally sensitive and basically she considers herself as the end all source that is worthy of judging everyone (women she has never met) on whether or not they are "cultured" enough to be a part of her group and "tolerant" enough to even be allowed to speak in her group. Silencing women who think differently than you do is not tolerance. It's the opposite. Silencing women who think differently than you do is not empowerment. Girls Love Travel does NOT represent women's empowerment. Girls Love Travel does NOT represent feminism. Girls Love Travel uses emotional abuse tactics such as gaslighting and race-baiting and represents online bullying at its finest, this is women abusing women and this is the opposite of the movement she claims to represent. Your brand will be associated with this hateful agenda if you choose to do business with her. 

If you are considering joining her group or paying any amount of money to attend one of her events, I would recommend making sure you and her both are on the same page about highly sensitive identity politics issues because if you are not, you will be met with her judgement, wrath, condemnation and criticism as you do not meet her standards of being worthy enough to be a part of her circle. Please make sure that you are first okay with being preached to about her views on non-travel related identity politics and please make sure first, you are okay with not being able to speak your opinions that may be different from hers. 

I am sure Haley Woods of Girls Love Travel feels she is serving some kind of virtuous agenda by consistently subjecting her members of the group to non-travel related political issues and she probably feels she is justified in doing this because it is her group, and I believe she is, but she does not disclose that in her group description and she bait and switches her members. Upon joining you think you are joining a really cool women's travel group with lots of awesome women from all over the world but then you soon find out that you entered into an exclusive club that is something similar to the Mean Girls movie. Haley Woods should put a disclaimer on her website and her Facebook group that members will be expected to tolerate her political preaching and if they disagree they are subject to being shamed. This is important because we live in a time where many women are desperately seeking connection with others. They are seeking a safe place where they can feel accepted and some people are even just trying to find a place to hang out that DOESN'T discuss political issues so they can get a breath of fresh air. This group is none of the above and there are SO MANY other travel groups for women that are truly tolerant, drama free, politics-free and non-judgemental. 

In closing, I want to say that I hope Haley Woods of Girls Love Travel eventually understands that all women are important, not just the ones that think like her and that is the true meaning of empowerment. Being able to respect all women even if they disagree with her, even if their culture doesn't share the same opinions as her and even if they are not offended by the same things she is. I hope one day she gets to that place as I believe women need to be lifting each other up, not viciously tearing each other down in the name of identity politics and virtue signaling for reputation brownie points. 

Thank you.