I became a vegetarian when I was eight years old, about three months before my ninth birthday.
I had been reading an article about vegetarianism in American Girl magazine, a periodical often subscribed to by eight-year-old girls. When I read the article, something clicked in my brain. I wasn’t sure why, but vegetarianism made sense to me.
Uh oh… the face kids make when they find out where meat comes from. Post continues below.
I went to my mum later that day and asked her if I could stop eating meat.
She was pretty receptive to the idea and recalled having had the desire to stop eating meat as a child, too, but said she’d been scoffed at by her own family, who insisted she’d get sick if she stopped eating meat.
Eager to support my bodily autonomy in a way that her own parents didn’t, my mum told me that the decision to eat meat was entirely up to me.
We went to the grocery store and bought beans and rice, tofu dogs, veggie burgers, edamame, and lentils. My mum’s chief concern with my decision was me not getting enough protein, which I soon learned was a common concern among those unfamiliar with a vegetarian diet.
Top Comments
Perhaps in another ten years, you'll look back on this article and think very differently as it's never been more important to go vegan for all the reasons you listed.
I went vegan 27 years ago, and I’ll no sooner go back to eating meat, eggs, and dairy “products” than I’ll decide that raping or beating humans isn’t as immoral as I once thought, or that cigarettes aren’t actually as unhealthy as research shows. It’s just not going to happen—for ethical, environmental, health, and humanitarian reasons. Cruelty is cruelty. What does it say about us if we choose to be cruel when we have the option to be kind, healthy, and environmentally-friendly?