© 2024 KUNR
Illustration of rolling hills with occasional trees and a radio tower.
Serving Northern Nevada and the Eastern Sierra
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
KUNR’s spring fund drive is happening now, and your gift to the station will go twice as far with a matching pledge from the KUNR Advisory Board!

Now is the time to act –
click here to make a gift to KUNR today or increase your sustaining membership and have it matched.

Being Vegan As A Teenager: Youth Media Opinion

A stand filled with fruits and vegetables at a grocery store.
Marco Verch
/
Flickr/Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)

Hannah Choi is a recent high school graduate and a vegan. People often ask her why she is a vegan, so she chose to answer that question in this KUNR Youth Media opinion piece.

I am never quite sure how to answer that. The only thought that enters my mind is giant, bloody hanging carcasses. I was in eighth grade when my class took a casual field trip to the local slaughterhouse. To this day I still remember standing in the very spot where animals are killed, trying so hard to ignore the pungent smells of rotten blood that took over all my senses. I remember being so scared of the hanging carcasses that towered over me. They were like blown-up piñatas that nobody wanted to swing at. And once I saw barrels of blood, I was so close to throwing up.

I can’t forget the poor cows that I saw. I grieved for them. They had no clue that their lives would end shortly. Fortunately, though, not every animal’s life is taken away so harshly. There are farms moving toward more ethical practices where animals are cared for and not abused. But this field trip was so very traumatic for me. It isn’t the sole reason I became vegan. Although, I do give it credit for launching my journey towards veganism.

It surprised me how much we are accustomed to eating animals. I was curious [as to] why, and how different my life would be if I stopped. My curiosity lead to my own research. Watching documentaries, I learned about the harmful impacts meat and dairy industries have on the planet. Eating a plant-based diet reduces the amount of land, resources and water that goes into producing meat and dairy. It is a sustainable way of living, or even a sustainable practice, if modifications are made in one’s diet.

As an advocate for the Earth, I knew that I wanted to change my way of living. I was only in eighth grade. It was a gradual process, where I slowly started to say no to meat and dairy products. Until one night I was eating rice and fried eggs – a staple in the Asian diet – when I put my spoon down and looked up at my mom and told her, “I can’t do this anymore. I feel terrible for this poor chicken.” And like that, I went full-on vegan. Now, you may wonder, what is it like being a teenage vegan? Well, it isn’t much different.

Like many teenagers, I love fast food. And my absolute guilty pleasure is Taco Bell. Their ‘Crunchwrap Supreme’ is about the best thing in the entire world. I [substitute] meat for beans and make it fresco for some extra flavor.

A plant-based diet is not only good for the Earth, [but] it also provides health benefits. It largely decreases the risk of heart disease if the diet is well-balanced. It also helps to advocate and give a voice for those animals that are so poorly-treated in many large industries around the world.

Plant-based diets are becoming a social norm. People are becoming more aware of how their actions directly affect climate. Society is changing for the better.

The world is progressing towards a more sustainable future and, hopefully, one day we can all practice sustainable methods for the betterment of our health, our planet and our animals.

Hannah Choi is a recent high school graduate and a part of KUNR’s Youth Media program, a special partnership with the Washoe County School District to train the next generation of journalists. Since the start of the pandemic, the program has only met remotely and students have not been reporting in the field to avoid the transmission of COVID-19.

Related Content