Travel influencers are everywhere online these days.
From travel bloggers like the Blonde Abroad to vloggers (video-bloggers) like Lost Leblanc, social media sites are absolutely packed with content creators focusing on travel. There are even families who travel the world full time and post about their lives — like the Bucket List Family.
If you want to know more about the Bucket List Family, you’ve come to the right place.
We’ve got the low-down to help you find out exactly who they are, what they do, and how they make their money. Let's find out now.
Who and What Is the Bucket List Family?
The Bucket List Family is the online name of the Gee family.
The family consists of parents Garrett and Jessica and children Manilla, Dorothy, and Calihan. The family has become incredibly famous in the online world for their travel content — they have over 2.5 million followers on Instagram and 1.3 million subscribers on YouTube.
Since 2015, the family has been traveling the world and documenting their trips online.
They spent three years traveling full-time, visiting 65 countries together. They’ve now bought and renovated a house in Hawaii, where they now live, but that doesn’t mean they’ve stopped traveling! They continue to travel and post regular videos and pictures of their adventures.
What Kind of Content Does the Bucket List Family Make?
The Bucket List Family creates and shares travel videos on YouTube and gorgeous travel shots on Instagram. They also have blog posts on their website, but they aren’t posting more of these at present.
The Gees post a new video to their YouTube channel every week. These videos document their travels and latest adventures, whether that means teaching their youngest child to swim in Seychelles or having their tent attacked by monkeys in Zambia.
How does the Bucket List Family make money?
Like most online content creators, the Bucket List Family makes money in a few different ways.
Their successful YouTube channel means they probably have a hefty chunk of ad revenue coming in on a regular basis. They also have business partnerships with large companies, including Disney, GoPro, and Airbnb. They create sponsored content for their large online following, for which they can earn upwards of $8,000 — per post!
In addition to watching their YouTube channel, you can hear all about how they came to be with the Bucket List Family's podcast: Committed.
The family also has an online shop where fans can buy travel backpacks and apparel. They also sell preset filters for Instagram so you can edit your travel shots to look just like theirs.
Here are some quick-fire facts about the Bucket List Family to answer any questions you might have about them.
How old are Garrett and Jessica Gee?
As of December 2021, Garrett Gee is 32 years old and Jess Gee is 35 years old. Their kids, Dorothy, Manilla, and Calihan, are 9, 7, and 3, respectively.
How did the Bucket List Family get rich?
Traveling the world takes a lot of cash, and the Gee family has plenty of it! While Garrett Gee was studying, he developed an app that he then sold to Snapchat for $54 million. Wow!
Where does the Bucket List Family live?
The Gees are originally from Utah, but from 2015 to 2018, they traveled full time. In 2018, they decided to buy a house so they’d have somewhere to finally call home. They now live in Hawaii and travel as much as they want.
What is the Bucket List Family’s net worth?
Garrett Gee sold an app he’d developed to Snapchat for $54 million. Now, the family’s net worth is estimated to be a whopping $80 million, thanks to the cash they’ve made through their online channels and content production.
What religion is the Bucket List Family?
The Gees have previously told fans and followers that Garrett and Jessica met through mission work in Russia. Garrett Gee and the entire Bucket List Family are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints — in other words, the Mormon Church. Garrett Gee actually has his own page on Mormon Wiki.
Is the Bucket List Family still mormon? We believe so!
Garrett Gee is called the "Mormon Entrepreneur" on the Mormon Wiki. During the pandemic in 2020, the Gee family decided to cancel much of their planned trips around the world and focused instead on smaller scale bucket-list events such as family parties and charitable events like "Kindness vs. Coronavirus".
Controversies Surrounding the Bucket List Family
As well as their upbeat and cheerful travel videos, the Bucket List Family has caused at least a couple of controversies over the last few years.
One of these involved an Instagram competition. Up for grabs were some amazing round-the-world trips, but the Instagram post shared by Jess and Garrett about how to actually enter the competition didn’t give the proper details of how to do it. Followers were told to just like and share the post to enter — but in reality, the only way to enter was to fill in an online form.
Whether it was intentional or not, this oversight seemed to many people to be a way for the Bucket List Family to get more followers and traction on their account, which equates to more money every time they post.
What Happened to Jessica Gee?
In 2021, Jess Gee was in a skiing accident. It might not seem like something that would cause a scandal, but it did.
The Gees posted a video to their YouTube channel that ended with Jess in what appeared to be a bad skiing accident. They gave the video a click-bait headline to get plenty of views: “Mom is Emergency Lifted by Helicopter to the Hospital. Heli-Ski Accident in Utah.”
Most of the video is just nice footage of a family ski trip. But the video ends with Jess having an accident. Garrett walks over to Jessica, filming all the while. He records her crying, and the video ends with him sitting alone on the slopes as his wife is carried off in a helicopter.
This cliffhanger ending made many fans upset — and incredibly worried about Jess.
Fans were repeatedly asking if she was okay, but the family’s social media accounts went quiet. More and more people were talking about the video, and the Gees were accused of being emotionally manipulative for the sake of views and likes.
Garrett defended himself saying he hadn’t had time to update his followers, but many people have now questioned whether its ethical to use an accident for engagement.
Where Can I Follow the Bucket List Family?
If you want to find out more about the Gee family and their adventures, you can follow them online. Check out the Bucket List Family Instagram or take a look at the Bucket List Family YouTube channel.
The five family members — including the three kids — also have individual Instagram accounts. Follow Garrett, Jess, Dorothy, Manilla, and Calihan to learn more about the family adventures.
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