[peachie]

i'm one of the only veg*ns in my high school. people always ask about it out of curiosity, and a lot of the time it's more like "why the heck would you do that?!". and when i try to support veganism, no one cares. because face it, people are narrowminded and don't care about what they put into themselves. i don't even want to convert anyone to veganism (though that would be amazing) but i just want to raise awareness and have people realize how great veganism is! any tips on how to do this and what to discuss/point out? i hate closemindedness

ugh.

 

[Aussyj]

I know how you feel. Unfortunately, no suggestions... I have tried, and failed, to inform people about how good veganism is.

 

[Alli]

At our high school, it's wierd... The veg*ns are very against people doing it because they want to be "cool", and I'm against that as well, but I think that they are overanalyzing things. If someone wants to be veg*n, don't scare them off by attacking them and assuming that they want to be "cool". It just baffles me, really.

No suggestions here, either. Just needed to rant and this seemed like an appropriate place. :\\ Heh, sorry.

 

[peachie]

it's so hard because people, especially other teens, don't even care about what the put into their mouths anymore. i cringe when i see my friends eat greasy burgers and such..and they assume it's fine as long as they're not fat. they're obviously healthy as long as they're skinny.. ha. i wish they could see how their health will be in 30 years. no one wants to make an effort to change their lifestyle...bleh.

 

[Alli]

Ick, I know... Another thing they should be worried about but aren't- getting diabetes.

 

[Iria]

Quote:

Originally Posted by peachie

it's so hard because people, especially other teens, don't even care about what the put into their mouths anymore. i cringe when i see my friends eat greasy burgers and such..and they assume it's fine as long as they're not fat. they're obviously healthy as long as they're skinny.. ha. i wish they could see how their health will be in 30 years. no one wants to make an effort to change their lifestyle...bleh.

I just wanted to say that I hate that attitude. I'm very skinny and people are always telling me "You're so lucky. You can eat anything!" Sure, if I want to die of a heart attack like 3/4's of my mother's relatives or get diabetes like my dad's parents.

That why I think it's hard to change teenager's attitudes. Some of us are very conscientous of our health and a bit more in tune with our morals/spirituality, but a lot of people our age just can't think that way. They can't think of their own future and even if they can sympathize with the animals, they're too selfish or afraid of being singled out to change their eating habits.

I think the best way of converting people is just to be a good role model. There was a girl in my school who passed out PETA stickers, and I always thought it was strange that she was that 'radical' about vegetarianism. It didn't sway me at all. What did sway me were three vegetarians who never talked about their diets. They seemed so 'normal' that the day I discovered the third one was veggie, I thought "If they're doing this, then I certainly can!"

 

[peachie]

ahh Iria i couldn't agree more! many people still view my veganism as a diet (i've converted from vegetarianism to veganism pretty recently). they don't seem to get that i could possibly be concerned about animal rights and overall health. no one considers how GOOD it is that i'm vegan now. so when i have to turn down pizza or cookies ect, people are like "whyy, you don't need to lose weight!". maybe i want to live past the age of 65! seriously, america's eating habits have spiraled down recently. my mom and i talked about this the other day, and how she got SO excited whenever her mom let her have a frozen dinner- a rare occasion. vegetarianism aside, people ate real food back then. not fast food on a daily basis. so today's youth is going to be very surprised when their diets consisting of food groups: fries, pizza, ect...get diseases in 30 years. yuck. people are blind.

sorry for the long rant!

 

[s0ad]

I don't know any other real vegetarians at my school. Forget about vegan. One said that she was a vegetarian.... but sometimes had free-range chicken. The other claims to be a vegetarian but I've seen her eat burgers from the cafeteria (which are in no way vegetarian)

Some of my overweight friends asked how I lost so much weight, and although I lost almost half of my total weight loss while still eating meat I tell them that being a vegetarian and getting rid of one big problem food (meat) was helpful. They just go wow.. that's hard... I could NEVER do that.

I also offer my food that I make to my friends, but they want nothing to do with it. I tell them I'll make a really small amount and if they don't like it after a tiny bite, they can go spit it out. They won't even do that. (So now I have to get rid of my 7ish boxes of Morningstar stuff, a lot unopened, because nobody wants to even try). I would eat them, but they're not vegan and I bought them while I was a vegetarian.

My friend got mad at me when I asked to look at the gum ingredients before taking a piece. Good thing I did though because it had some animal ingredient in it.

My best friend is probably the only supportive person of me (although she also doesn't want to try anything of mine either) but she understands and always feels bad when we go out to eat and there's only 1 vegan option if I'm lucky. I forced her to try my soy ice cream though and she liked it. (-:

I ate fast food probably 4 times a week at least in junior high. I became extremely overweight, I was constantly depressed, always tired, I hated life. Gradually I made changes and in 11th grade I finally had a huge wake up call. After reading someone's weight loss blog I was like "pffffttt if they can do it, so can I"

Unfortunately most teens, like others said, don't realize what they're doing. A big part is the parent's fault, I believe. When I see such overweight children that have trouble walking, I know they're not picking up their pay check from Sears and driving to McDonalds themselves.

I have heard the "God put animals on Earth so we can eat them" arguement more times than I can count. This coming from people who can't even name 5 of the 10 commandments.

I can't wait until reunion time when many people's eating habits will have caught up with them.

I've made arguements against the dissection we had to do in bio, but people found me annoying, picky, and weird. I did the online one and guess who did best on the test? (; Now I just keep quiet. This is my last year in high school, I'm not going to try anymore. I can't wait until college when I can meet other real veg*ns.

 

[Alli]

I have two friends who are pescatarians and call themselves vegetarians, and it bugs me. A lot. I know of one other vegetarian and one vegan, but I don't really talk to them.

You know what else bugs me? How high-school kids seem to think hunting is "cool". Robbing something of its life with something so impersonal as a gun is not cool, kids.

I think most high-schoolers are way too concerned about their image to think about issues and nutrition. I too am always told how lucky I am that I'm skinny. It's not luck, it's being concious about what I eat.

 

[Aussyj]

I agree with the above. Also, I would like to state that I would be happy if people just ate more healthy options. Instead of french fries every day, limit them, or ask the cafeteria for baked fries. Persuade the cafeteria to become more healthy through the powers that be, so to speak.

The bottom line is: If people had more control and ate more healthily, factory farming would have, most likely, never come into existence.

 

[peachie]

guess what happened at my school?? i went to the office suggesting some healthier vegan or vegetarian options (even all the salads have meat) and they basically laughed in my face saying they need the $ and "the new junk food ban is gradually coming into action". what the hell, yeah my school stopped selling sugary drinks but they still sell french fries which half the school gets. reeeeeeeal healthy.

so if i forget to make my lunch one day...i just have to go hungry all day. it's either that or french fries.

 

[Tuffenoughtoroc]

I talk to kids all the time at school about veg*ism, and actually got my group of friends to go vegetarian for a week. They fell of the wagon shortly afterwards, but they understand to a certain extent of what it's like. One of my friends said she felt better on a vegetarian diet, but couldn't go without her meat. It is unfortunate that my sister and I are the only vegetarians in the entire school--the most descriminated against as well.

For the Thanksgiving season I am printing out pamplets from the Farm Sanctuary and passing them out to people at school. Maybe that could help people think about what they're eating over Thanksgiving break.

 

[shineonyou]

When I went vegan five years ago, there was one other vegan girl in my high school... who was in the hospital for malnutrition. So just about everyone and their mother mentioned it to me. How stupid that a bunch of kids who were probably eating candy bars and cheap fries for lunch were lecturing me about my health using the example of someone they didn't know especially well. Needless to say, I've personally been hospital free since then. Maybe all of my teachers could have given a health lecture to the 80% of the student body that actually needed it.

 

[Alli]

A lot of young kids can't handle the diet correctly and others suffer for it, unfortunately.

I think it's really ironic how a few vegans/vegetarians go to the hospital for malnutriton, while a huge majority of meat eaters are in the hospital for cancer/taking drugs for high cholesterol/etc. and people still give us a hard time.

 

[shineonyou]

I agree. I'm pretty sure this girl is the only person I've ever personally known who was hospitalized for malnutrition. I really don't see how malnutrition is possible if one is eating until they're reasonably full, which most people without eating disorders tend to do.

Oh well, now that I'm older, I rarely have people tell me my diet is unhealthy. I've either found better people to surround myself with or my long history with veganism shuts people up. Probably both.

 

[abc123]

I'm part of the Youth Committe of the Toronto Vegetarian Association. One of the things we're trying to do is link of vegetarians at different high schools so that they can support each other in starting veg clubs at their schools. So if anyone's in Toronto, Ontario give me a shout!

Recently I've found that the key to getting people to change is provide them with pressure-free information. Nobody wants to be told that they are doing something wrong, it feels like a personal attack. Instead I've been trying to provide them with the information that made me go veg in the first place. I carry around "Why Vegan"s and "Even If You Like Meat"s (from www.veganoutreach.org they'll send you some for free if you tell them it's for a high school) as well as veg starter kits to give to people when they seem at all interested in why I'm veg.

Some of the people in the youth group have had success screening documentaries such as The Witness and Peaceable Kingdom at their schools, and some have gotten permission to put up educational displays on factory farming in the hallways. Approaching the environmental clubs is a good idea too since factory farming has a HUGE IMPACT (earthsave.com) on the environment, and we want to draw people into veg*nism however we can.

 

[Thalia]

Even if teens can't put up a display or screen a movie in their schools, they could do it at the library instead. Many teens spend time at the library for school or as a hangout. Many libraries now have teen only rooms where teens can hang out and be loud.