About Us
We are Allie & Danella (She/Her/Hers)
We started Wander Free and Queer in 2018 while traveling full-time in our RV. As we explored the rural areas of the Pacific Northwest, we noticed a lack of visibility for LGBTQ+ people in the outdoor and adventure communities. We didn’t see ourselves in any media as we explored natural spaces, so we founded Wander Free and Queer to change that! Now settled in the foothills of Mt. Hood, we center our efforts on bringing LGBTQ+ representation to rural communities.
Our mission is three-fold: We cultivate community through creating content for brands, organizing events, and handcrafting goods.
Our brand content highlights safe and inclusive travel and adventure for businesses and organizations. To date, we have worked with brands such as REI, Hyatt Hotels, and Moon Guides.
Our events focus on increasing access and education to the outdoors through guided activities such as snowshoeing, kayaking, and our queer campout weekends. These events have been funded by Mt. Hood Territory and supported by other community partners.
Our products offer accessories that represent diverse identities, such as our Wander With Pride stickers and our crocheted pride flag keychains.
Visibility, representation, and inclusion are at the heart of our mission and brand. We see you. 🏳️🌈
Allie (She/Her)
Allie is from Vermont. She grew up traveling with her family. Allie spent her free time outside, playing and exploring in the New Englands pastoral landscape. She left her small town life for the big city to go to college.
Allie spent over ten years in Chicago, getting both her undergraduate degree in sociology and her graduate degree in elementary education. She came out as a lesbian after years of contemplating her sexuality.
Allie left Chicago to get sober from alcohol close to home in Maine. She now has almost ten years of recovery and actively works to maintain her sobriety.
Today, Allie loves being in the elementary classroom with kids, listening to audiobooks and walking in the woods. She enjoys trips to the coast, true crime, and her morning cup of coffee.
Allie is determined to be a positive representation of queerness for young individuals so that they may feel safer and more included as they grow up in our world.
Danella (she/her)
Danella is from Massachusetts. She grew up without accessing the outdoors and didn’t know how powerful nature could be until she was a young adult.
Danella came out when she was in her early teenage years and identifies with the label Queer. She believes that her queerness is not only related to her sexuality, but also the way she lives her life, choosing to follow less traditional paths and to make choices based on her values and beliefs, rather than prescribed notions from society.
Danella has a Masters Degree in Adult Education with undergraduate degrees in both English and Gender Studies. She loved being a student and considers herself a lifelong teacher and learner. Studying opened her world to new perspectives and possibilities that she didn’t know were possible to her.
Today, Danella loves writing, hiking, and meditating. She spends her time tending to her physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing in the foothills of Mt. Hood by getting outside as often as possible. She feels passionately about being a visible fat, queer woman in nature so that others see representation of diversity in the outdoors.