Forget hedonism – meet the YouTube influencer going on a 'mindful gap year'

Most of us associate gap years with hedonism and escapism, a care-free year out of education to explore the world with reckless abandon.

Not Jade Bowler.

After launching her YouTube channel UnJaded Jade in February 2017, Bowler has become a something of a vlogging sensation, with over 230,000 subscribers tuning in to watch her talking about her three main passions: veganism, academia and self-confidence. A fourth bullet point will soon be joining that list: travel.

With her A-Levels behind her (3 A*s, naturally) and a deferred place at Bristol University, UnJaded Jade will be taking her vlog on the road.

In this exclusive interview and video (scroll down to watch it), Jade explains to Telegraph Travel what she means by a 'mindful gap year', why she plans on going digitally 'M.I.A' in Australia, and reveals the surprising thing she's most afraid of ahead of her journey.

"It’s a taboo subject for a high achiever to take a gap year"

"I think part of it was a gut feeling that I needed to do this for myself. I’ve always been very focused on studies and very academic, but I’m also very passionate about that not being everything.

"I feel like throughout the years I’ve neglected time for myself, to develop my social skills and doing all the things outside of pure academics. It was quite a hard decision to make because I feel like it’s a taboo subject for a high achiever to take a gap year, so I definitely had some controversy with my teachers at school, especially being Head Girl I think it’s assumed that you’ll go straight to a good university."

"My mum is not too happy about it"

"She’s a bit scared for me, especially when I told her I’m going solo interrailing. The word solo scared her. My dad is more chilled, he says: ‘You’ll have the best time and make loads of friends.’ My mum is basically being a bit of a mum.

"Initially she’ll be texting me a lot, but as time goes on I think she’ll probably just get used to it. Once every few days I’ll let her know I’m OK and I’ll obviously share where I am with her."

What is a 'mindful gap year'? It’s the idea that this is your year"

"You can spend it how you choose for the first time ever. Having been in the education system your whole life, even during the summer holidays it’s in the back of your mind that you should be doing some work for school. I feel like your time is always a bit preoccupied with things you haven’t fully chosen yourself.

"The concept is that this year, you live for you. Not for anyone else. It sounds so cliched but within the whole ‘finding yourself’ thing I think that taking time like this will help me to understand myself better, what I like, and how I deal with more difficult situations.

"The whole idea is about growing as a person. I’m a huge advocate of yoga, mindfulness and meditation. I’ll incorporate that into my daily routine even while I’m travelling, just because it’s really easy to keep going along with the hustle and bustle of the everyday and not take the time to reflect. Meditation and being mindful in the moment is hugely important."

"I'm going to do an intensive language course"

"I’m thinking of going over to Holland, because my mum’s Dutch, and doing an intensive language course there. When I was tiny I was fluent in Dutch, I could speak to my Dutch family, but I never formally learnt it and now that I’m 18 I can hardly speak it. I can just understand broken Dutch.

"I’m going interrailing at the end of this month, solo, which is terrifying. I’m going to France because I’ve actually been practising quite a lot of French in my free time - I did it at GCSE and really enjoyed it, so I’m trying to push it back up again."

"I’d rather live like a local than see the bucket list sights"

"It’s quite good having the YouTube platform that I do because I’ve spoken to people who live in some of the places where I’m visiting. So in Paris I’m having half a day with a local teenager who will take me around the lesser-known sights. But I’ll probably visit the Eiffel Tower because, why not?"

"I'm doing the typical backpacker loop"

"After interrailing, my friend and I are heading to the east of Australia for the typical backpacker experience. We’re starting off in Sydney and backpacking up to Cairns. We’ve got the hop-on hop-off bus tour thing. We’re trying to be quite flexible with booking hostels because we’re going for just under two months. We want to see which places we like, which places we’ll want to stay in for longer or shorter.

"Then we are backpacking southeast Asia for a month. We’re starting in Thailand, doing the backpacker loop of Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, then moving to Indonesia and Bali."

"It’d be selfish of me to spend the whole year backpacking and not give something back"

"I’m also looking into a voluntary project to do. I’ve been really trying to narrow it down because I’m really aware of voluntourism as an issue and I think it’s really easy to sign up for one month helping kids in an orphanage and think you’re making a real difference, but in reality you’re paying money to a big company and not really helping.

"I have to use my time to make a positive difference in some way. I think part of living like a local is actually helping people who need it. I think it’d be selfish of me to spend the whole year backpacking and seeing sights and not giving back."

"In Australia I'll go a bit M.I.A off social media"

"I think the first few weeks in Australia i’ll go a bit M.I.A off social media - that’s part of travelling isn’t it? It’s living so in the moment. I think there is something about switching on a camera that you have to be conscious of what you’re filming, keeping people updated. So yeah, I’ll have a good balance of both."

"A huge issue with social media is that everything is perfect"

"Something I’ve always focused on with my social media platforms is authenticity and honesty. Throughout my exams I wanted to share the real struggles of doing exams, coming out of an exam crying. I think that’s a huge issue with social media is that everything is perfect, you see the pretty images.

"When vlogging it’s easier to take people on the actual journey of what is happening. I think it’s more entertaining when it’s real. No-one wants to see these perfectly edited highlight reels."

"My worst nightmare would be getting stranded in the middle of nowhere and my phone dies"

"It sounds stupid but the thing I’m most afraid of is me being stranded at night in a random city where I don’t really know the language, and my phone dies and I don’t have access to a place to charge it.

"I think in today’s world you do tend to rely on your phone for everything. The hostel where you’re going, your booking reference, even just Google Maps for directions. I do rely on my phone a lot, so my worst nightmare would be to get stranded in the middle of nowhere and for my phone just died.

"I’m going to bring a compass, I learnt how to use one on D of E and I’ll bring a physical map - very old school."

Are you planning a gap year? Would you be tempted to follow Jade's lead and take a 'mindful' year out? Comment below to let us know your thoughts.