Originally Posted by
veggiejanie
First of all, congrats for becoming vegetarian!
I told my friends that I'm a vegan out of compassion for the animals. If they ask me additional questions, I do my best to answer them and often refer them to
www.goveg.com (because it's easy to remember and loaded with information!). If they don't believe me about the conditions of factory farms, like your friend, direct her to that website or even
www.meetyourmeat.com. Another good site is
www.factoryfarming.com - a site made by Farm Sanctuary. This has a lot of information that may help your cousin (and others) understand factory farming is more common and horrible than she thinks!
The important thing is to be friendly and informative. It takes practice, but before you know it you will be able to talk comfortably with your friends and family about vegetarianism with ease. At first, I was shy and didn't quite know the best way to share the information with them that they were asking for, but it gets easier. Do lots of research (I'm sure you have already!) and learn the stats - they will help you when people ask you questions.
Good luck, and again - congratulations for making the decision to go vegetarian!