How Compelling Writing Brought Me to Veganism

By Published On: 12 June 2013Last Updated: 17 January 2017

Compelling writing brought me to my vegan lifestyle, so I know that writing is a powerful tool that can spark and maintain a healthy, rigorous dialog...

What's in this post

Meet Amy.  Amy is a long-time vegan that knows that writing is a great way to inspire someone into veganism.  She’s our newest Lifestyle Writer and she’s guaranteed to keep you entertained and informed.  Please help me welcome her to the team! – KD

Bradley

Veganism entered my life gradually, through several encounters with special people, animals and ideas that nudged me to give up dairy cheese, my last hold out. I went vegan 14 years ago, before seeing slaughterhouse/undercover investigation videos, although I have endured many since. I’m that person who won’t watch carnage even when it’s fiction—I hide from all horror films and consider CSI too graphic for before bedtime.

It was books like Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation, Spiegel’s The Dreaded Comparison, and Adams’s The Sexual Politics of Meat that challenged me to rethink my everyday life and to share that experience with others. Compelling writing brought me to my vegan lifestyle, so I know that writing is a powerful tool that can spark and maintain a healthy, rigorous dialog—that’s why I’m super excited to join YDV!

My previous writing experience consists mostly of teaching young people how to write for the ten years I was a high school English teacher. In addition to teaching the usual books such, I developed and taught a “Veg Out” class for a special term and invited chefs, activists and undercover investigators in to speak to my students—it was pretty great!  I also corrected hundreds of students who thought To Kill a Mockingbird was titled, How to Kill a Mockingbird.

I like to think that I’m motivated by teaching, learning, and a desire to make the world a more compassionate place, but the truth is that my sweet tooth guides my day-to-day existence (and all of my vacation plans). I dream of someday quitting my full-time job to spend my hours baking and giving away vegan treats to make people’s day.

I live with my husband, son, pittie dogs, and rabbits in our little vegan harmony that gets interrupted when we all fight over who gets to lick the last bits out of a peanut butter jar.  My slivers of free time these days are spent wondering how many times a month I need to take my toddler to farmed animal sanctuaries so that he loves cows, pigs, goats…ee-ii-ee-ii-oo…etc. as much as he does dogs.

4 Comments

  1. Amy June 12, 2013 at 7:59 pm - Reply

    You inspire me, too, Lindsay! So I give you sugar :)

  2. Amy June 12, 2013 at 2:06 pm - Reply

    It was so good to see you as my first comment, Melissa! (But being a fellow English teacher, please don’t tell anyone about the typo in the section that discusses my teaching experience.)

    ;)

  3. Lindsay June 12, 2013 at 1:34 pm - Reply

    Amy – Your thoughtful approach to life and your amazing vegan desserts have always inspired me! I can’t wait to read more…and eat more…

  4. Melissa Rulong June 12, 2013 at 1:07 pm - Reply

    It’s great to see you writing, educating, and keeping your love for food. I’m excited to see what you will bring.

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HELLO! I'm KD Angle-Traegner.

Writer, activist, and founder of Four Urban Paws Sanctuary. I’m on a mission to help people live a vegan life. Read more about KD…

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