About
For over fifteen years, the digital media business known as Hopscotch the Globe has charted a course through the creator economy with remarkable strategic precision. Operated by the Canadian couple Kristen Sarah and Siya Zarrabi, the brand has evolved from a simple solo travel blog into a multi-platform business, a transformation built on an authentic, public chronicle of their own life stages. With a YouTube channel founded on August 20, 2010, that now commands an audience of over 328,000 subscribers and more than 54 million views, their journey maps the maturation of the influencer landscape itself.
Kristen & Siya: Origins and Growth
The start of Hopscotch the Globe dates to 2010, when founder Kristen Sarah launched the blog and YouTube channel to document a 10-month solo journey that began in India. The initial audience was family and friends, but the platform's appeal quickly scaled globally. This venture was the culmination of a passion ignited years earlier during a high school semester spent volunteering in Paraguay, an experience Sarah credits with instilling a lifelong "travel addiction." Her professional background as an actress and host, honed in the Toronto area, provided a polished on-camera presence from the brand's start.
The brand's first phase was defined by adventurous, often budget-conscious, couples' travel, as Kristen was joined by her partner, Siya Zarrabi. The couple, who were high-school sweethearts from Brampton, Ontario, and met in a college drama class, possessed a natural on-screen chemistry that became a core asset.
A significant strategic evolution began around 2017 with the acquisition of a 1976 Airstream Sovereign trailer, nicknamed "Luna." The couple purchased the vintage trailer from the online marketplace Kijiji for $13,000 and invested an additional $47,000 into a complete gut renovation. The project took approximately one year; the trailer was plagued by mouldy walls and a rotten subfloor, a reality driven home when an uncle fell through the floor during an inspection. The 200-square-foot space was entirely rebuilt with multipurpose furniture, a composting toilet, and an off-grid solar power system from Go Power!. This nomadic chapter coincided with the expansion of their family—the birth of their daughter, Kai, and the addition of their dog, Atlas—allowing them to develop a new content vertical focused on the realities of full-time family travel.
The brand's current and third phase marks a transition from pure nomadism to community-oriented settlement. Kristen and Siya have purchased land within an "intentional eco village" in Costa Rica. Their long-term plan involves shipping Luna to the property, where it will serve as their home while they design and construct a permanent, sustainable house, embedding themselves within the developing community.
Kristen & Siya Content and Style
The brand's content pillars have evolved in lockstep with the creators' lives. High-utility videos like "27 Travel PACKING HACKS," with 1.9 million views, and "15 Airplane Hacks to Upgrade Your Flying Experience for FREE," with 810,000 views, serve as powerful audience acquisition tools.
With the Airstream renovation, a new vertical emerged focused on alternative living. The content was marked by a signature transparency, documenting "the highlights, the struggles, the endless repairs" of life on the road. This open-book policy fostered a deep bond with their audience, a community they call the "Hopscotch the Globe Tribe." They have openly discussed personal topics ranging from "relationship hardships" and post-travel depression to the societal criticism they faced for traveling with a baby.
Today, the primary content pillar is their Costa Rican eco-community project, covering topics like sustainable building, off-grid living, and explorations of local culture. YouTube serves as the flagship for long-form cinematic vlogs, while the HopscotchtheGlobe.com blog provides detailed, search-optimized written guides. Instagram (@hopscotchtheglobe) is used for daily engagement, and TikTok (@hopscotchtheglobe) is leveraged for short, viral-formatted tips.
How Kristen & Siya Make Money
Their business model is diversified and professionally managed, extending far beyond ad revenue. They position themselves to partners as a "production crew and travel marketing company wrapped up in one neat package," offering videography, photography, and corporate speaking. A long-term ambassadorship with Sony, active since 2013, solidifies their reputation as technical experts. They have executed paid press trips for entities like Pakistan Tourism & CPIC Global and created travel guide series for New Orleans Tourism. They were also hired by the B2B data management company Commvault to deliver a keynote address on the future of work and digital nomadism to an audience of over 2,000 people.
Direct-to-consumer revenue is a significant and growing part of their model. They organize and host "HTG Group Trips," high-value curated tours to destinations like Peru and Costa Rica for small groups of up to 16 travelers. They also operate an e-commerce store selling branded merchandise made from certified organic cotton.
This is supplemented by a robust knowledge commerce and affiliate setup. In partnership with fellow travel creator Nadine Sykora ("Hey Nadine"), they have launched five online courses on the Skillshare platform covering travel videography and the business of content creation. Their digital properties include affiliate links to products from camera gear on their Amazon storefront to services like Holafly eSIM, for which they offer discount codes such as "KRISTENANDSIYA."
Kristen & Siya's Network
Siya Zarrabi, in his formal role as "Head Honcho" and Business Development & Brand Relations Manager, steers the commercial strategy. His membership in the Sony Alpha Collective, an elite group of photographers and videographers, is a key industry credential that provides both credibility and partnership opportunities. The collaboration with Nadine Sykora on a suite of online courses demonstrates a strategic partnership to pool audiences and expertise, creating a product that neither could have launched as effectively alone.
The Hopscotch the Globe brand is a distinct digital media company, and it is separate from other entities sharing its name. These include Hopscotch, a B2B payments fintech firm; a children's coding app featured on Shark Tank; a 1980 spy film starring Walter Matthau; and a corporate events agency named Hopscotch Moments. Kristen and Siya's brand has no operational or financial connection to any of these.
Kristen & Siya: Public Reception
The public perception of Hopscotch the Globe is overwhelmingly positive. The brand has received industry validation, including a Marriott Hotels' Viewers' Choice Award for their video on Curaçao and a Shorty Award nomination in the "Travel" category.
However, their move into eco-community living in Costa Rica has exposed them to a more complex form of critique. A comment on their blog represents the most direct public criticism found, targeting the socio-economic implications of their lifestyle: "Like this ecovillages and nearly all of them that I've seen are hella white and lack diversity." The creators themselves have acknowledged the potential pitfalls of such communities, noting difficulties of unresolved neighbor conflicts and restrictive HOA rules they observed in a similar nearby development.
Kristen & Siya Today
Hopscotch the Globe is currently in its most ambitious phase, transitioning from a narrative of global exploration to one of intentional settlement. Kristen Sarah and Siya Zarrabi have built a resilient creator business defined by its capacity for reinvention. Their core strategic strength lies in their ability to authentically integrate their personal evolution into a compelling and monetizable public narrative. As they document the construction of their sustainable home in Costa Rica, they are perfectly positioned to lead conversations in the growing alternative lifestyle niche. Their future success will depend on applying the same radical transparency to difficult conversations about privilege and community that has, for more than a decade, been the foundation of their brand.