BEING A VEGAN TEENAGER

If you are a teenager and you are reading this blog then you are either thinking of becoming vegan or you are here to read whether this “vegan girl” has something interesting to say about her strange diet. Well, I’ll immediately tell you that I couldn’t be happier with my choice and being a vegan teenager is great. 

Being vegan isn’t just about not eating certain things, but it is rather about developing a new mentality and changing your way of living. Being vegan makes me feel a better person, happy and satisfied.

It isn’t true that vegans don’t eat anything because outside of the “common mentality” where people think that meat, fish, cheese, eggs, and milk are all we can feed with and are an essential component of our nutrition. There is a whole new plant-based world made up of all kinds of fruits and vegetables and a lot of different cereals such as rice, couscous, quinoa… 

Furthermore, it can also be defined as a complete diet, even though most people are unaware that this diet is rich in proteins as well. In fact, there are many vegan proteins such as the ones indicated in the chart below. Green vegetables such as broccoli, artichokes, spinach, and cabbage are also good sources of proteins.

Being a vegan teenager is really cool, but it can also have some downsides. For example, not knowing what to eat at normal restaurants as they often don’t have any vegan options or being introduced to people as “the vegan girl/boy”. However, you’ll begin to even like that aspect of being vegan and you will be okay with it. Guess what? I have actually begun to like my new nickname, so being called “veggie” as an abbreviation for “vegan”.

In addition, everybody criticizes you for your lifestyle although you don’t criticize theirs. I don’t care if other people criticize my diet and I don’t see the point in doing so because as I don’t mind them eating animals they should not criticize me if I don’t. I believe that everyone should be free to follow the diet they want and do the things they like without caring too much about other people’s opinion because otherwise people will always find something to complain about and you’ll never do what you really like due to being obsessed about other people’s opinion. 

Anyway, none of these reasons has ever influenced my choice, and NEVER in my life have I thought about giving up the vegan diet and returning to eating normally. 

My advice to anybody out there who is thinking about following my choice and entering the vegan world would be that is an amazing decision which could be considered as one of the best decisions of your life. 

 It might be hard at the beginning to get used to this new diet, but with time you’ll gain confidence and it will become natural. With a simple look at the menu, you will understand what you can eat and which foods you need to avoid. You’ll understand how to balance your meals in order to make sure your diet is complete. You’ll learn pretty quickly where to find the vegan products at the supermarket and it will become a routine for you. My advice is not to drastically change from following the common diet to the vegan one, but try doing it in steps. Start reducing the quantity of meat you eat until you become a vegetarian and then do the same with dairy products until you become vegan. It might take a while to adapt to this change, but remember to be patient and keep in mind that what you are doing is great for you, your health and the world. You are treating yourself better and you are saving the lives of many animals at the same time.

Don’t let anybody make you change your mind. You are who you are and you eat in the way you like following the philosophy that represents you the most. Then if you realize that this isn’t the right diet for you, you can go back or change it but it has to be YOUR choice! 

Don’t allow other people to influence you. You’ll discover a lot of new foods that you didn’t know existed before and you’ll begin to like them too. Every day you will love your diet even more. I believed in it and I did it. Now I have been vegan for 4 years and I couldn’t be happier. 💖