Meet the Women Shaping History in NYC

We started this platform to cultivate hope with stories of people and places around the world that are resisting the violent, oppressive systems we live in.

Today, we're continuing this mission with our 5 Questions With series.

In time for Women's History Month, our third installment features Beth Santos, a powerful force for gender equity and inclusion in the travel space.

History isn't just a list of things that happened; it’s an interpretation, and women have been systematically left out of that curation for centuries.

Beth is the founder and CEO of Wanderful, an international community and creator network that helps women gain the confidence to travel the world.

She's the author of Wander Woman: How to Reclaim Your Space, Find Your Voice, and Travel the World, Solo, and the host of the 85 Percent Podcast and her upcoming show, World Herstory, which features women-owned businesses across the globe.

Throughout her many projects, there is one constant thread:

Beth is a lifelong advocate for diverse women and allies worldwide, creating spaces and opportunities for women to lead their fullest lives.

Together with her co-founder Nikki Padilla Rivera, Beth's newest project is a walking tour in New York called She Shapes History NYC.

This tour brings to life the forgotten stories of many trailblazing women who shaped the city's history, like that of Mabel Ping-Hua Lee, a sixteen-year-old girl who led 10,000 people up 5th Avenue in 1912.

Lee fought for women's voting rights even though she herself was not allowed to vote due to the racist 1882 law called the Chinese Exclusion Act.

(Nine years later, she went on to earn the first Ph.D. in economics awarded to a Chinese woman in the United States.)

Keep reading to learn more about She Shapes History NYC and how you can support the project.

1. Please tell us a little about yourself.

I started Wanderful as a travel blog in 2009, and today we’ve evolved into a massive "travel sisterhood" with three distinct membership tiers: traveler, creator, and entrepreneur.

While we help women travel better, we also do a lot of work on the business side — helping content creators build sustainable careers and supporting women small business owners as they navigate the travel industry.

Beyond our local chapters and group trips, we run the WITS Creator Summit (the largest gathering of women travel creators in the world) and host the Bessie Awards, which honor women of impact who are truly changing the face of travel.

[Editor's note: WITS 2026 is in Chattanooga, TN, this May.]

I also recently launched the Woman-Owned Map, which is the first mobile-friendly, interactive map of women-owned businesses to visit while traveling.

My book, Wander Woman, came out in 2024. It’s a part-guide, part-manifesto for solo women travelers that works to bust the myths and industry expectations we often face.

Home for me is Boston, where I live with my husband and our three kids.

It's a city with a very complex history — one that is often viewed through a colonial, white-centric lens. But the reality of Boston today is that it’s a majority-minority city with incredible diversity that doesn't always get the spotlight it deserves.

My husband and I also own a local cafe here called Ula Cafe in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood. Being a cafe owner has given me a front-row seat to the care and connection Bostonians have for one another.

Boston is a city that’s actively working to do better, and I’ve come to love the way people here lean into their community.

2. What compelled you to start She Shapes History NYC?

Did you know that only 6% of statues in the U.S. feature real, historical women?

When you walk down the street, look at plaques, or open a history book, the narrative has been almost entirely curated by people with a specific kind of privilege and access (we know who they are).

History isn't just a list of things that happened; it’s an interpretation, and women have been systematically left out of that curation for centuries.

When I saw the work Sita Sargeant was doing with She Shapes History in Australia, I knew the time was right to bring this movement to the U.S.

My business partner, Nikki Padilla Rivera, and I are officially launching the first U.S. branch in New York City this month!

Our tours focus on telling the stories of the women who shaped the city — the names you probably don’t know, but definitely should.

We’re starting in Midtown, with tours beginning at the iconic Grand Central Station.

Our goal is to "say their names" and reframe how we see the places we live in.

You can see our upcoming tours and book public, private, or corporate sessions here.

3. If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be?

I would depolarize our world.

We are living through an era of extreme disconnection, and it's being fueled in part by internet algorithms and a news cycle that makes it very hard to connect with people we disagree with.

The result is that people are lonelier than ever. We’ve stopped listening to each other because we’re so busy trying to be "right" or look perfectly put together.

If I could fix one thing, it would be to teach us all how to be compassionate listeners again.

Listening starts with the recognition that none of us has all the answers.

I wish we could see that our humanity is found in the "messy" parts of us — in the ability to sit with someone, process their feelings, and actually hear them without the pressure to provide a solution or win an argument.

We’re all humans on this planet together, and we’re all just trying to figure it out as we go.

4. What do resistance and solidarity look like for you?

I think of them as two different but deeply connected concepts.

Resistance, to me, is about "the pause."

We live in a world that moves at such a breakneck speed that we’re often just trying to keep up, which makes it easy to passively subscribe to things without thinking.

Resistance is the freedom to step back and say, "Wait, I don't know if I agree with this," or even, "I need more time to decide how I feel." It’s the act of questioning the messages we’re bombarded with every day.

Solidarity is what happens after that pause. It’s the act of aligning your values with someone else’s and standing by them.

In a way, resistance and solidarity go hand-in-hand because when you resist the status quo, you’re often creating solidarity with others who are doing the same.

But solidarity also requires us to be active participants — it’s about moving from passive agreement into active support for a person or a cause. It’s about standing together when things are difficult.

5. What gives you hope?

Honestly, my kids.

Being a mother in today's world is a beautiful, difficult challenge. I often tell people that I’m not just raising children; I’m raising adults.

Whenever I’m with them, I’m thinking about how I can help them become the good citizens this world needs — people who are empathetic, happy, and kind.

Seeing the love they have for each other and the simple but profound questions they ask me gives me hope because they represent a fresh start.

We’re only on this planet for a short time, and I hope that the love we show our children can eventually translate into a broader love that we all show each other.

They remind me that every one of us, in our own small way, is a world-changer.

Seeing their capacity for care makes me believe that a more connected, compassionate future is actually possible.

RISE Travel Institute is our Founding Member

RISE is a nonprofit with a mission to create a more just and equitable world through travel education

Interested in your organization becoming a Founding Member? Send us an email.

Radostina Boseva is our Founding Member

Radostina Boseva is a film wedding photographer with an editorial flair based in San Francisco.