Before the interview starts, Chris Urquhart is showing me a bunch of white splotches on her chest. "It's a fungal infection," she says. "My doctor says it's just from being dirty."

Urquhart, 23, is also recovering from lice and fleas, and was recently tested for parasites. She and award-winning photographer Kitra Cahana, 22, wear these afflictions with pride; they were earned in a summer spent travelling with self-proclaimed "dirty kids," a group of modern-day nomads criss-crossing America, homeless and living off the generosity and excess of the American people.