Özlem Akçin

Özlem Keşifte · Who I am

Hi, I'm Özlem

I left a corporate job in 2014 and hit the road. Today I run Turkey's first personal tiny house YouTube channel, a 600K+ Instagram community, and the blog ozlemkesifte.com that still gets the same care as the first day I started it.

600K+Instagram
2YouTube channels
10+ yrsOn the road
71Written guides

1. Starting Out (2014)

I grew up in Istanbul. For years I lived the same script as many others — bus to the office in the morning, exhausted ride home in the evening, waiting for the next day. The job was fine: stable salary, decent comfort, low surprises. But something was missing. I couldn't tell you which city I was in, which season, who I'd actually spent time with that week. The weeks just kept stacking.

2014 was the year that feeling became impossible to ignore. I packed a small bag, quit, and left. I didn't have a plan. I had an intention: to live this life on my own terms.

I spent a long time figuring out how to explain it to people. Some thought I was "taking a break", others wondered if I was having a crisis. It wasn't a crisis — more of a quiet wake-up. I'd been the kid who stared at maps, memorized the geography sections at the back of textbooks, asked "what if I just went there?" I'd been carrying that question for years. I was simply ten years late getting on the road.

The first months were Turkey — coastal villages, mountain roads, small towns I'd never heard of. The Black Sea backcountry, hidden Aegean coves, Mediterranean mountain towns. Then Asia: Bali, end-to-end Thailand, long quiet weeks in Vietnam, getting lost in the mountains of Nepal. Then home. A full Black Sea road trip by car. Then back out. Then home again.

Being on the road, finding a cove with a backpack, sitting at someone's family breakfast as a stranger — all of it felt much truer than the corporate rhythm ever did. I wasn't checking the time. Each morning I woke up somewhere I had chosen to be. Ten years later, that feeling still comes back the same way.

2. Early Writing and ozlemkesifte.com

I started writing to remember. Which cove had cold water, where I rented a cheap beach house, who poured me tea in which village. My notes piled up. A friend told me to share them. In 2019 ozlemkesifte.com went live — a personal, warm, plain-spoken travel blog.

The blog grew over the years. Turkey guides, international trips, camping tips, budget notes, gear, accommodation reviews — hundreds of articles accumulated. Nothing was deleted: today there are 71 guides still active on the same domain. In spring 2026 I rebuilt the entire site from scratch, recovered seven years of writing from the Wayback Machine, and brought everything back online.

3. Meeting the Tiny House

On the road I kept noticing one thing: you can live more with less stuff. After months with a single backpack, walking back into an apartment in Istanbul felt suffocating. I was surrounded by things I didn't need and couldn't remember buying.

I discovered tiny houses through YouTube channels in the US and Australia. Then I started looking for Turkish equivalents. At the time the topic barely existed here — no real builders, no Turkish-language content, no legal framework. Foreign content didn't translate: climate, transport, economy, and regulation are all different in Turkey.

Seeing the gap, I started Turkey's first personal tiny house YouTube channel: @ozlemkesifte. I started visiting tiny house villages, meeting builders, talking on camera about pricing, permits, infrastructure. Around the same time I started Ozlem's Tiny House Life — an English channel sharing minimalist and nature-led living in Turkey with an international audience.

4. Why I Write, Why I Film

Two answers. First: memory. If I don't write down a cove's name, I'll forget it. The small trick I learned about which season the north wind hits Sinop — useful, but worthless if it's not noted that day.

Second, and more important: I want to leave a practical guide for whoever walks the same road later. For someone exhausted by the polished side of social media, asking herself "am I crazy for wanting this?" — for the version of me five years ago — I want to leave a grounded answer. "No, you're not crazy. It's possible. Here are the addresses, here's the budget, here's where to get off and which bus to take. Go."

That's why every line here is personal experience. Not an ad. Not a tourism office page. If I haven't been there, I don't write. If I haven't toured the tiny house, I don't describe the details. If I haven't stayed, I don't review. This boundary is internal and hasn't changed in ten years.

5. The Philosophy: Less, and Real

In two words: less, and real.

Less: I don't have to carry the weight of everything I don't need. I don't need 30 outfit options — I need five well-chosen ones. I don't need a full year of an unused apartment — I need a living space that invites me out. Tiny house, caravan, off-grid living are the practical expressions of this. The philosophy itself: stepping back, on purpose, from the noise of daily life. Less stuff, less noise, more attention.

Real: sharing what I actually see, not what the filter shows. Under a "Bali Is Paradise" headline, not everywhere is paradise — some beaches are crowded, some journeys are hard, some accommodations are overrated. I don't hold back from writing this because it's the contract I have with readers. Decoration is easy. Honesty is valuable. When a tiny house project has zoning uncertainty I don't call it "permitted"; when a village has rough infrastructure I don't gloss it over as "charming". This sometimes ends collaborations, and sometimes starts long-term ones.

Sustainability is a natural part of this. Consume less, support local economies, real connection with local people, travel without breaking nature — I don't frame these as a manifesto, just ordinary behavior. Sunday at a village coffee shop on the Black Sea, choosing a plastic-free restaurant in Bali, leaving no trace at a campsite when you pack up — small things.

Discovery is both outward and inward. Every place I visit — a village, a cove, a mountain town — opens something in me too. "How do they live here?", "Why did this person settle here?", "Could I do this?" Those are the questions that put me on the road. The answers are sometimes easier than I thought, sometimes far more complicated. But not asking the question feels worse than any answer.

6. What I've Learned in Ten Years

Making this kind of content comes with realities people don't always see. Sharing a few openly, in case it's useful to someone thinking of starting:

  • One visit to a place isn't enough. You only start to understand a cove's true character on the third visit. The first time is awe, the third is settling in, the fifth is when you can actually evaluate. The "first impression" content on social media is often misleading for this reason.
  • Turkey is bigger than you think. After years of travel I still have coves, mountain towns and villages unmarked on my map. If you put a fifth of the research you put into a European city trip into your own country, an entirely different life opens up.
  • Tiny house isn't a romantic idea, it's an engineering one. Zoning, infrastructure, water, electricity, waste. A visually pretty house — can it still stand in three years? That's the real question. Years of project visits taught me those details matter more than aesthetics.
  • Social media is a starting point, not the destination. Every place you see on Instagram is usually a frame the photographer waited hours for. The real value is taking a day, going there, and walking at your own pace. I try to keep that balance when I create content.
  • Solo travel teaches things, traveling with someone teaches different things. Both are valuable. No single "right" way.

7. What I'm Doing Now

  • Instagram — @ozlemkesifte (600K+ followers). Daily posts, stories, reels, on-the-road observations. My most active community channel.
  • YouTube — Turkish — @ozlemkesifte. Tiny house villages in Turkey, travel routes, living-space reviews. Still the first personal tiny house channel in Turkey.
  • YouTube — English — @OzlemsTinyHouseLife (Ozlem's Tiny House Life). Minimalist and nature-led living from Turkey for an international audience.
  • TikTok — @ozlemkesifte. Short-form posts and quick observations.
  • Pinterest — @ozlemkesifte. Travel boards and the photo archive.
  • ozlemkesifte.com — This site. 71 written guides, blog, active content production. Every new article gets announced through the newsletter first.

8. Press and Media

Interviews, biographical profiles and guest contributions (chronological — all in Turkish):

9. Podcasts I've Been On

10. Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Özlem Akçin?

I'm a Turkish content creator. In 2014 I left a corporate job to travel, and later founded Turkey's first personal tiny house YouTube channel (@ozlemkesifte). I own and edit ozlemkesifte.com. My Instagram community is 600K+ and I run two YouTube channels (Turkish + English) with regular content.

Where did you go first?

My first weeks after quitting were in Turkey — Aegean coves, the Black Sea road. My first big international trip was Asia: Bali, Thailand, Vietnam, Nepal. Over the years I've returned to the same regions many times. I think you need to visit a place at least two or three times before you can really say "I know it".

Did you really start Turkey's first tiny house YouTube channel?

Yes — the first personal Turkish-language YouTube channel on tiny houses. There were construction-focused or company channels earlier, but no one was sharing personal experience and reviewing different projects independently. I started filling that gap. Today a meaningful portion of Turkey's tiny house conversation comes from this channel.

Any advice for someone considering a tiny house?

Slow down first. Many people start with excitement and risk money because of zoning uncertainty. Four things to verify before any step: zoned land, permitted project, infrastructure (water, electricity, waste), and a formal cooperative structure. Also imagine the region in winter: how cold, how connected, how far to a market?

Do you get paid for your content?

Yes for some partnerships, no for most. My collaboration rules: product or place must be aligned with what I do, I must be able to experience it on site, I keep full creative control, and the post is clearly labeled. I decline advertorial work ("go to X as a sponsored visit" style). When I receive free accommodation or transport, I disclose it openly in the content.

Fastest way to contact you?

Email: iletisim@ozlemkesifte.com. I usually reply within 24–48 hours. For collaboration pitches, please include: who you are, the project, timing, and a budget range in the first message — I can make a decision without much back-and-forth. Instagram DMs are very busy, slowest channel.

Who subscribes to your newsletter?

Generally: people planning a trip, those considering tiny house or caravan living, and anyone looking to escape to a quieter corner of Turkey. No ads, no selling — just notifications when new articles go up. Unsubscribing is one click. Subscribe from the homepage.

11. Speaking Engagements

{TO BE FILLED} — Panels, conferences, festivals and workshop talks will be listed here. For speaking invitations, see contact.

12. Contact and Collaborations

The fastest way to reach me is email: iletisim@ozlemkesifte.com. I usually reply within 24–48 hours.

Where I work with partners:

  • Tiny house and nature-based projects — village, builder, architect features, on-site reviews
  • Turkey travel destinations — cove, town, village tourism storytelling
  • Accommodation reviews — bungalow, thermal hotel, boutique stay (places I personally test)
  • Brand collaborations — travel gear, outdoor goods, sustainable products
  • Written content — travel magazines, newspaper columns, book projects

In a first message, please include: who you are, what you'd like to do, timing, and a budget range. I don't take advertorial-style work. I'm open to projects I can actually see and experience first-hand.

13. All Links