Prior to her journalistic endeavors, this award-winning playwright and Tennessee Williams Fellow was as a feminist playwright and performer, and traveled as an international comedian.

 

‘Lofty’, as she is globally known, started touring internationally as a comedian 19 years ago with her first international gig in The Middle East. Several international tours followed in Europe and  throughout Asia where she entertained the troops and international audiences at military bases, comedy clubs, theaters, festivals (Edinburgh Fringe Festival & Singapore Comedy Festival), hotels (Raffles Hotel in Singapore & The Crown Plaza in Abu Dhabi) ), colleges, conferences, and at several private clubs (American Club in Hong Kong & American Club in Singapore) and corporate events around the world.

 

Lofty  hit her stride comedically and internationally when she toured the world on her own alone in her one-woman comedic concert tour, 'American Woman, A One Women Comedic Invasion'. The two hour and twenty minute show was a true tour de force.

 

This wasn’t her first foray on the stage. Her award-winning plays, It’s a Man’s Man’s, Man’s, Man’s World; A Two Woman Show, Barbie’s Dolls and I’m Not the Blond You Think I Am were performed at various venues in LA, NY, Seattle, DC, Baltimore, Tennessee, throughout the US and in Edinburgh, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

 

At the time of her comedic endeavors, Lofty created her own non-profit program, Body Comedy.  With this project, she used humor to heal, working with thousands of women and children, survivors of physical and sexual violence and abuse.  When not touring the world, she volunteered in shelters, homes and juvenile halls throughout LA and southern California. She also worked with female inmates and male domestic violence offenders in LA in her six-week Body Comedy programs. BC was widely covered in the international media.

 

After ten years of juggling her groundbreaking global tours together with her non-profit program, The Body Comedy Project, (sponsored by Comedy Central) Lofty took a break and worked as an entertainment reporter for Life & Style, OK!, TV Guide, and others interviewing film, TV and reality stars. One year on Hollywood’s raging red carpet had her running for the global door.

 

Still keeping a toe in the entertainment pool, Lofty discovered global designers and brands through her international travels and events. She brought them back to LA where she helped them launch or relaunch in the US and or rebrand through celebrity branding and product placement with her LA fashion events, The Lofty Style Lounge. Germany's Kilian Kerner and Montreal's Industry Apparel were but a few of those brands.  Her events led to licensing deals with Gwen Stefani and will.i.am and placements on Entertainment Tonight, Extra, E!, Bravo TV, Comedy Central, and American Idol and on the cast members of The Office, Entourage, Desperate Housewives, Reno 911, and Weeds, as well as cast members from Andy Garcia's Lost City, among others.

 

As a travel, luxury lifestyle and adventure writer and journalist, Loftus has written thousands of articles for media outlets including Vogue, Architectural Digest, American Way, Hemispheres Magazine, Forbes, Robb Report, NY Daily News, South China Morning Post, Grazia Magazine, New Woman, Men’s Journal,  InsideHook, Travel Weekly, Huffington Post, and many others.

 

This savvy traveler has been to all seven continents and 70 countries and counting. Today she speaks at conferences around the world about "The Financial Effect of Female Travel",  "The Adrenaline Effect", "Why Women Matter in Travel", "The Transformative Power of Travel" and "Empowerment Travel" as well as trends in travel, be it luxury, adventure, solo, or women’s travel. 

 

She co-created and co-hosts #WATC - Women’s Adventure Travel Chat on Twitter, a Twitter chat garnering as many as 10 million impressions in the hour and she runs travel and creative writing workshops.

 

She co-created & co-hosts ReVerbs, a live storytelling platform for the global travel, adventure, and apparel industry, a vibrant conference alternative where executives and industry leaders break tradition and tell a personal tale versus a corporate story.

 

Karen is very excited to finally be launching her company, Women’s Adventure Travels. This is a full circle moment, one long in the making, a marriage of her many interests and experiences with itineraries based on many of her favorite places, people, and passions. The unique elements on the trips reflect Karen's varied background. 

 

Her all-female trips have an empowering and a fierce feminine thread throughout as she and guests will be celebrating women; visiting women-owned and operated businesses and women of distinction and influence in each market. There’s also a storytelling component with women speakers and storytellers. It is seamlessly woven into the trips with women and a few good men speaking over dinner, drinks, or by the fire sharing their triumphs and tales.

 

The third component is community immersion and authentic interaction with local women. WAT will visit villages, schools, co-ops, places of work and of importance to share an activity, an experience, a meal, and a moment with local women to get an intimate look into their lives. 

 

Surrounded by spirited, like-minded women and set in stunning landscapes, WAT trips provide a mix of outdoor and adventure activity at various levels to suit you, along with a cultural immersion and stays in top spots around the world that showcase an authentic ambiance, exceptional local artisans, art and architecture, as well as local food and beverages. Guests will be led off the beaten path with adventurous and immersive itineraries. No two journeys will ever be alike and you will be hard-pressed to find anything else quite like it online.

 

For more information on Karen, pop on to the blog, go to her LinkedIn page, email her directly or simply click on one of her social media pages below to follow her on the global road. To stay in the loop with all things WAT, Subscribe to our newsletter.