RIYADH: Living in Saudi Arabia, Florence Clarke has built a growing online community by sharing realistic health and lifestyle content that encourages people to feel their best through simple, sustainable habits. By focusing on authenticity over perfection, she has connected with audiences looking for practical well-being advice in an often-overwhelming digital world.

She said: “So I would post about that, you know (fitness), and I think it just led from there when I moved here to Saudi. I didn’t know where to go to a gym. You guys have, like, your gyms are segregated here. I didn’t know about powerlifting communities, things like that. So, I always posted about my day here.”

Florence is keen to show her friends back home in Edinburgh in Scotland her everyday life and her passion for health. She added: “You know, self-improvement, empowering yourself, doing better: I think these are things that my parents always taught me; these are things that are aligned with me.

“And I had a boss here and she said, ‘You need to be (seen) more.’ I think I was only posting on Snap at this time and she’s like, ‘You need to get an Instagram’.”

Florence added that her friends urged her to get on various social media platforms like TikTok during the Covid pandemic. She added: “So I was like, ‘OK, I feel like I’m too old for TikTok.’ I was like, ‘OK, let me do it.’ So, like, (in) 2023, I got TikTok and I started to post.”

Florence recalled the first video that she posted and circulated on her social media platforms. “It’s the Shas (Toyota Landcruiser 70 Series Pickup). Well, the first one I posted about it, I said I called it the classic brown Toyota. Everyone’s like, this is a Shas. The one thing I saw was that they correct you about their culture. This is called the Shas. And I even say it wrong.”

Florence loves the Asir Region of Saudi Arabia, which is famous for its dramatic, mist-shrouded Asir Mountains, home to the highest peak in the Kingdom; its cooler highland climate; and rich traditional culture that contrasts sharply with the country’s flat desert expanses.

She said: “It’s very nice weather. I couldn’t believe it. I still can’t get over it. Yes, like, you’re in the mountains there. Literally. And the whole, the engineering, the infrastructure, the roads. You know, I was, like, are you going to drive? I just rented a car and went from Al-Baha to Muhayil and then Muhayil to Abha.  It was just really amazing.”

Florence took a moment to share her thoughts about the Kingdom’s health sector, the Saudi Green Initiative, and the Quality of Life Program, all part of the blueprint of Saudi Vision 2030.

She added that health, quality of life, and community well-being were central to achieving.

She said: “It’s a huge project to link all of that. I think of over 200 hospitals linked to this, and I just think how easy, even for myself, (if) you want to book an appointment, you want to see a doctor. You just pick your phone up and just choose a clinic.

“You know, just having the access, I think the access to healthcare is much easier.”

Stressing that the unified health sector platform made accessibility easy, she added: “You just go book an appointment if you want to have a procedure. There’s so many different clinics and hospitals that you can go to. So, this has been amazing to see. There’s also a lot of initiatives to improve quality of life here, which I think is really amazing. Something simple, again, another huge project, planting trees.”

Florence added that Saudi Vision 2030 provided inspiration to young people, saying: “I think when you see people doing things, you become inspired to do so.”