The 7 Travel Basics Everyone Should Own, According to Shay Mitchell

Welcome to Second Life, a podcast spotlighting successful women who've made major career changes—and fearlessly mastered the pivot. Hosted by Hillary Kerr, co-founder and chief content officer at Who What Wear, each episode will give you a direct line to women who are game changers in their fields. Subscribe to Second Life on iTunes, and stay tuned. We'll be releasing new episodes on Mondays.

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(Image credit: Second Life)

Acting on not one but two hit shows may be satisfying enough for some, but Pretty Little Liars and You star Shay Mitchell is determined to pursue a variety of other interests. She's already written a YA novel and has developed a successful YouTube lifestyle channel, but now she's pivoting once again to travel entrepreneurship with her brand Béis. On the newest episode of Second Life, Mitchell talks to host Hillary Kerr about her numerous career transitions and why she started her new brand.

When asked about the strategy behind Béis, Mitchell explained that it was important to design true essentials. "I wanted to come out with the basics first," Mitchell says in the podcast. "If I were to come out with 30 different items, that would be very overwhelming for the consumer. Everybody needs a backpack. Everybody needs a weekender and passport holder. And from that, we just kind of came up with the assortment that we had for our first launch." The collection also includes four other basics: a duffle bag, luggage tag, a spill-proof bag for liquids, and a cosmetics case. 

"I came out with this to create something that was functional, chic, and affordable," Mitchell told Kerr about the brand. And we have to say: mission accomplished. Subscribe to Second Life on iTunes to listen to the episode and scroll down to shop Mitchell's brand.

Weekender Bag

Duffel Bag

Passport Case and Luggage Tag

Cosmetics Case

Backpack

Spill-Proof Bag

Next, find out how Kendra Scott built a billion-dollar brand

Erin Fitzpatrick
Senior News Editor

Erin got her start as a Who What Wear intern over 12 years ago—back when the site only published a single story per day. (Who What Wear has since increased that number twentyfold.) She graduated magna cum laude from USC, which is how she ended up moving to Los Angeles from her hometown of San Diego. In college, she also interned at Refinery29, where she was promoted to editorial assistant and then assistant editor. After nearly three years at R29, she came back to WWW in 2016, where she currently holds the title of senior news editor (as well as the unofficial title of resident royal expert—in case you haven't noticed her numerous Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton stories). She spends her days trying to incorporate her idols, Anna Wintour and Roger Federer, into as many stories as possible. Outside of work, she loves tennis, classic rock, traveling, and smothering her dog with affection.