Sarah Kohan

Fitspo star Sarah Kohan (AKA @moonstrucktraveller) reveals how she crams fitness and getting a Harvard education into her jet-setting lifestyle

With 100 000 new followers every month, she's the Instagram influencer you probably ought to know about - and Sarah Kohan is on the verge of something pretty special. She talks to Women's Health about her rapid rise to Insta-fame and the moves that sculpted this body

Should you be in the market for a new girl crush, may we point you in the direction of Sarah Kohan? She ticks all the boxes. Beach hair that’s the right amount of messy, a tanned, toned physique that bikinis are just screaming out to be draped over, legs up to here, a tiny waist, curves in all the right places and those ab lines. Yep. Boxes ticked. Oh, then there’s the fact that she’s a Harvardeducated law graduate. So that’s the clever box ticked, too. Did we mention Sarah spends her time travelling to the kind of destinations you’ll ‘definitely’ visit one day, posing in said bikinis, serving up sexy, sun-kissed aspiration to her 550k+ followers? That’ll be the Instagram influencer box ticked then. Maybe even underlined. Not convinced? Have a scroll through her profile (@moonstrucktraveller) and see for yourself. Or, you know, devour the delicious photos you can see here. Because it’s all this box-ticking that put Sarah on these pages and on the cover of our Influencer Issue. Bronzed, beautiful and with a body so banging it ought to be illegal, she has everyone on WH’S shoot – male, female, straight, gay – slack-jawed in awe. Sure, she’s been to more exotic locations than you’ve had hot dinners – she arrived by way of LA; before that was Kauai – but we’re shooting her in a variety of swimming attire in Blighty. Rye, to be precise. I ask how she’s finding the East Sussex seaside town. ‘It’s lovely.’ It’s not exactly Bora Bora though, is it? ‘No, but I love visiting new places,’ she smiles. ‘Every place has its own magic.’ And it’s the ‘positive spin’ that makes Sarah’s personality so irresistible. Fancy doing a quick cartwheel on the beach for an Instagram story? ‘Yeah, cool.’ But our standard swimwear photo shoot takes a bit of a turn. Shooting perilously close to the water, it transpires the tide is coming in at a rate of 10ft every minute. Though Sarah doesn’t show that she’s in any danger. As everyone else present – stylist, photographer, hair and make-up, plus assorted assistants, agents and magazine-types – pick up the not-very-light photographic equipment and lug it up the beach every minute when the tide comes lapping, Sarah arches her back for the money shot, making it all look, well, effortless. If there were any vehicles here (aside from the RNLI truck – which, as it happens, does stop by under the guise of issuing a ‘do watch out for that tide’ warning, though it may well be for a cheeky gawp), you could describe Sarah’s performance as ‘traffic- stopping’:

men cease playing baseball (sorry, rounders), everyone in Team WH makes various ‘oh yes’ and ‘love that one’ noises following every click of the camera and three holidaying girls, all under 10, are in such adulation, they try very hard to recreate her poses, just out of shot. To be in Sarah’s company is to feel like you’re present at the start of something. So how did she get here? How did she become an ‘influencer’? And really, what does that even mean? It started on holiday in Tonga in October 2016. Sydney-born Sarah, 23, got up close and personal with a humpback whale while free diving. Her sister Olivia took some arty photos of the encounter and Sarah whacked them on Instagram. At the time, she already had a not-too-modest 20,000 followers, but something about the free-diving images blew everything up – and by December, her following had swelled to 100,000. ‘My local paper did an interview in January, then Mail Online got in touch and put the pictures on their website,’ says Sarah. ‘Since then, my following has grown every month by 100k. Some weeks it’s up by 30k.’ Finishing her education was a nonnegotiable, but Sarah started to think more carefully about what to post (to ‘curate’ her content, if you can bear it). ‘Posting good content all the time really works,’ she says. ‘People engage with that.’ Studies almost done, she’s now focusing on turning that growing Instagram following into a career and, ultimately, an income. That last part has, in fact, begun – she’s already being paid to travel by brands that want her to wear their wares. Current bikini brand sponsors – because, obvs, she’s all about the ’kinis – include Kaohs, Frankies and L*space. ‘I’m walking for Kaohs in Miami Swim Week in late July,’ explains Sarah. ‘I’m nervous, but it’s a dream come true. I never thought I’d be on a catwalk.’ Modelling aside, what else does an ‘influencer’ get up to? ‘I’m moving to LA,’ she says. ‘It makes sense; a lot of my work is there. I still want to use my law degree though. Eventually, I want to work at the International Criminal Court at The Hague in the Netherlands. I’m hoping to get an internship there, get my master’s, then practise there as a solicitor. I’m giving myself a year to see where all this goes.’ And where this could all go looks pretty exciting right now – travelling, modelling, brand spokesperson, with a nice steady career in law to fall back on.

‘I’M AIMING TO WORK AT THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT AT THE HAGUE’

‘I’M ALL ABOUT THE ADVENTURE; I’LL HIKE A MOUNTAIN IN FLIP-FLOPS’

‘It’s funny,’ she says, ‘I used to be quite introverted, but this has made me more confident. Now, I can walk up to someone and start a conversation; three years ago, I wouldn’t have done that. This has changed my life.’ Of all these life-changing experiences, what stands out? ‘I went trekking in Patagonia with my dad,’ she says. ‘I’m all about the adventure; I’ll hike a mountain in flip-flops.’ Having seen her willingness to agree to everything thrown at her on the shoot – get in the sand dunes, pop in the sea, lay down, get up, run this way – she’s basically up for pretty much anything. ‘I’m definitely a “yes” person,’ she laughs. ‘But that can be bad, because I say yes to everything. Sometimes I can’t fit it all in. I need to become a “selective no” person.’ What would she definitely say yes to? ‘I’m looking into doing a TV show,’ she explains. ‘Each episode would focus on a specific animal in a unique location.’ Like David Attenborough but with more bikinis? ‘I love Planet Earth. I’d like to do a show like Bear Grylls’, too.’ Would she survive in the wild? ‘Totally. I’m not fearful of many things.’ Oh, so what is she afraid of? ‘I’m not even really fearful of dying,’ she says. ‘That’s deep, isn’t it? But I’m not. You have to live every day as well as you can. You can’t take anything for granted.’ Quite a wise head on those tanned 23-year-old shoulders. How so? ‘Last February, my aunt died,’ she explains. ‘She was only 62; it was a massive shock. The saddest thing is she was going to go to Hawaii and Bora Bora because she’d always wanted to see the turtles and dolphins, but she died a month before the trip. That was heartbreaking. But whenever I think, “Is this a crazy life?”, I hope she’s watching over all the amazing things I’m doing.’ Amazing most definitely, but Sarah’s schedule is packed. After some rare downtime post-interview, she’ll be picked up at 2:30am for a 5am flight to Croatia (‘I’m excited to see my brother there’). Eight days there, then on to Monemvasia (‘A five-hour drive out of Athens’) for her best friend’s wedding, then to Mykonos. Just reading that’ll tire you out. But for

Sarah, travel is very much a way of life. ‘In April, I did 179 hours in the air,’ she says. ‘I’m so used to being on a plane, it’s my haven. It’s the one place I know I can turn off; there’s no Wi-fi.’ Plus, air miles. She’s clearly very close to her family – all this solo travelling must make it difficult to keep in touch. ‘Facetime,’ she says. ‘I even Facetime my dogs. And my bird.’ But all this back and forth must make relationships tricky, too? ‘I’m not seeing anyone at the moment,’ she says. ‘You could put a personal ad in the mag: “She needs someone who’ll travel with her.” I’ve learned to love myself being alone. Before you can get into a relationship you need to be able to do that.’ Throughout our chat, Sarah has been casually nibbling on some fresh berries. Is that, you know, typical? ‘I’m refined-sugar free,’ she says. ‘And I don’t drink very much. If I go out with friends, I might have a vodka and soda, nothing fizzy. I’m not vegetarian; I eat fish. That is the biggest backlash I get. I was vegan for six months, but I just couldn’t maintain it. Now, I can’t post food pictures unless they’re fully vegan – people don’t respond well.’ While it’s obvious to the naked eye that Sarah hit the jackpot in the genetic lottery, that body – those abs – are actually achievable. You just have to work bloody hard to get them. ‘Before this shoot, I ramped it up,’ she says. ‘I was doing reformer Pilates, a session at Barry’s Bootcamp and a class at Soulcycle every morning.’ But that can’t be sustainable, can it? ‘I do two hours in the gym most days,’ she says. ‘An hour of reformer Pilates then an hour of cardio. Pilates changed my body. I like to get up first thing and get it done. I get up at 4.45am every day.’ Oof. 4.45am every day? Are there some mornings when she just can’t be bothered? You know, like a normal human being? ‘Totally,’ she says. ‘There are times when I’m so tired. But I always feel better when I’ve gone.’ Well, all those early mornings have certainly paid off. Blessed as she is physically, you’d assume she couldn’t possibly have any hang-ups. ‘My skin is bad today,’ she says. (Though it looks pretty radiant to us.) ‘And I feel self-conscious about that. But that’s just being a 23-year-old girl.’ Let’s talk #bodyinspo. ‘Adriana Lima,’ she says. ‘She’s fit. I love Candice Swanepoel too. She has an incredible body.’ Since we’re on the subject of Victoria’s Secret models, is that an ambition for Sarah – to strap on some wings and become an Angel herself?

‘I DO TWO HOURS IN THE GYM MOST DAYS. PILATES REALLY CHANGED MY BODY’

‘Yes,’ she says coyly, ‘but it’s not going to happen. I’m only 5ft 6in and I don’t look like them. But they inspire a lot of women.’ You can’t really talk to someone who exists in the realm of social media without dipping a toe in the slightly murky, troll-infested waters of its dark side.

‘You do get awful comments,’ says Sarah. ‘But you block the nutty followers. I sometimes get messages saying, “I’d hope a Harvard-educated student wouldn’t be posting pictures of her rear online.” But I take it with a pinch of salt. I’ve had so many opportunities, I think as long as I’m not doing anything to hurt anyone, then it’s my choice.’ Well, quite. That water-off-a-duck’s-back attitude to negativity must stem from past experience – was she bullied at school? ‘Yes, I would say so, but it’s just one of those things,’ she says. ‘Girls can be mean.’ With more than half a million people gagging to pore over her posts (though, by the time you read this, that’ll no doubt be closer still to the coveted one million mark), brands falling over themselves to sponsor her and a potential TV career bubbling away nicely, she must wonder what those mean girls would make of all her success. ‘I probably would have cared a year ago,’ she shrugs. ‘But life’s too short. Just keep moving onward and upward.’ And onward and upward is clearly where Sarah is heading. It’s barely six months since she was a student on holiday. And now she’s on the cusp of something no doubt spectacular. You heard it here first.