Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
IDAHO FALLS — He just barely turned 1 but Briggs Darrington has already been on 45 flights, is collecting a paycheck every month and travels to places a lot of people only dream of.
The Idaho Falls baby has become a social media influencer as his mother has documented their journeys over the past year.
"When I was researching, I couldn't find a single Instagram account that was baby travel. There was a lot of kid travel and family travel but nothing specific for babies," Jess Darrington tells EastIdahoNews.com.
She says she started a blog with her husband Steve called Part Time Tourists a few years before their son was born. She wanted the opportunity to travel and have a flexible schedule.
"Honestly, I thought at the beginning it was just going to be a fun side hobby and maybe, on the off chance, we could get a free trip every once in a while. That was my wildest dream. We started traveling and working with tourism boards and brands and it just grew from there," she says.
When Darrington gave birth to Briggs in October 2020, she wanted to continue their traveling adventures with him.
"We really wanted a baby but I was nervous that it was going to stop our business Part Time Tourists. We just kept with it. We kept traveling and because I was traveling with him, I was learning a lot of valuable tips. I wanted to share it with an audience who was going to appreciate baby travel tips. That's when I created Briggs' Instagram and TikTok account," she says.
Her son has over 29,700 followers on Instagram under the username "Where is Briggs" and his TikTok account has over 24,500 followers. She estimates that he makes about $1,000 a month and while it's not their main source of income, it is some extra money.
"My husband and I joke that he kind of pays his own bills. He definitely carries his weight around the house. He has a diaper company that sponsors him," she says.
What started out as a dream for Darrington became much more. It's been a way to help other mothers.
"It's become so fulfilling to me because on a regular basis, I'll get messages from new moms going through postpartum anxiety or postpartum depression. I've even had messages from moms who have found out that they are pregnant and really depressed and kind of hinted towards wanting to possibly have an abortion," Darrington says. "We have moms reaching out and letting us know how grateful and appreciative they are with the content that we put out because it's either gave them the courage to get out of the house and walk to the coffee shop for the first time to 'I just took a 16-hour international trip with my baby. Thanks for giving me the tip to do that.'"
Darrington tells EastIdahoNews.com that she's taken Briggs to Alaska to see the glaciers and look at bears. He's also been to Hawaii and they just returned from New Mexico after watching the balloon fiesta. He's even gone glamping and The Daily Mail wrote a story about Briggs.
"It will be exciting when he is older and I'll be able to show him our photos, our trips, our videos and the memories that we made together when he was so young and hopefully (we will) go back to those destinations when he is older," she says.
