The Modern Muse

Social media has made stars of the most unexpected and ordinary people. We talk to three regional leaders in content creation who have redefined the sphere of influence

- Ann Marie McQueen

It was a Friday, I think, and I was doing my typical thing, where I had grand plans of doing an intense hot yoga class but was instead procrastinating by scrolling through my Instagram feed.

I hadn’t yet put on my workout clothes, and I was getting perilously close to missing the class when I hit on a video that someone I followed had shared, featuring a woman named Fit Sister. She was clad in all-black, including a hijab, and despite it still being hot outside, was brawling her way through a tremendously challenging outdoor workout on a playground. I immediately shared her video, followed her account, and put my phone down, making it to class just in time. It then transpired that the woman behind @FitSister is Sylvie Eberena, a single mum who is homeschooling her four children. She is now firmly one of my sources of social media fitness inspiration. Eberena, who has 11,500 followers on her Instagram account and thousands more on @PaleOh and @HealthyMiddleEast, is the very definition of a ‘modern muse’.

The original muses from ancient Greek mythology were all women, who apparently numbered somewhere between three and nine. What is not in dispute is that their function was to inspire others creatively in a variety of areas, mostly in the arts, often in writing and, indirectly, through the dissemination of the works they helped create, in lifestyle.

Although the discourse was weightier then, in a way they are not so different from the bloggers and Instagram stars of today. At the macro level there are the likes of Kim Kardashian, Beyoncé and Huda Beauty, not to mention the scores of wellness and spiritual accounts, who set trends with a single post. However, the kind of influence and inspiration that can be found closer to home, from people with thousands rather than millions of followers, can be just as meaningful – if not more so.