Anna Ho begins her videos with the phrase, “So I live in Vancouver, and I have no friends.”
The 23-year-old has lived in Vancouver all her life but says after graduating high school and not pursuing post-secondary education, she discovered there aren’t many opportunities to meet people in the city that has an unfriendly reputation.
Vancouver’s loneliness problem was severe enough that the municipal government launched a task force in 2012 to increase Vancouverites’ sense of belonging and inclusion. A decade later, Vancouver was described as “not so friendly” and ranked among the 10 worst cities for expats to live and work by InterNations, a company that ranked 50 cities around the world.
It’s why Ho is challenging herself to do 30 activities to make friends in Vancouver and documenting her journey on TikTok, garnering her hundreds of thousands of views.
Ho went to an electronic music festival with strangers, did a painting class alone …