Going Vegan as a Teenager Living With a Non Vegan Family?
Here’s how to do it….
As veganism is becoming increasingly more popular, there are many younger people such as teenagers who are wanting to become vegan. However, if you’re a 16-year-old teenager that still lives at home with your parents who eat meat every night, it can be very challenging to adopt this new lifestyle.
As challenging as it might seem, it’s not impossible!
If you want to go vegan as a teenager but you’re still living with your parents, there are a few things that you can do.
Everyone’s situation will be different. There are some people who might have parents who are interested in veganism and are supportive to the point of even wanting to try eating vegan themselves.
On the other hand other parents will be more strict, unsupportive, and not want their child to do it.
Here are some tips to help you go vegan as a teenager
#1 Educate Yourself
Whether your parents are supportive or not, the first thing that you need to do is show them how knowledgable and passionate you are about veganism.
Before talking to them, read books and articles, or watch documentaries and videos to educate yourself all about veganism.
I have a great book I wrote specifically on educating people on why they should go vegan which you can find HERE on Amazon.
When your parents say “why would you ever want to do something like this?” (because they will ask why), be prepared! Have a good answer planned out. Let them know how much you love animals, and how important this is to you.
Educate yourself about what happens in the dairy industry, and egg industry. Most parents can’t understand why people don’t want to eat meat, but chances are they have no idea about the dairy and egg industry.
If you have trouble memorizing information, try printing out pages with facts and information to show them.
#2 Watch Documentaries Together
Maybe if your parents are supportive you can have a family movie night where you watch a documentary together such as Earthlings or Forks Over Knives.
The most important thing is to show your parents that you have educated yourself on going vegan as a teenager, you’ve done your research, and you are passionate about it.
#3 Show Responsibility
Another thing to do is tell your parents that you will prepare your own food. This shows an immense amount of responsibility that they might not have been expecting.
Many times when teenagers tell their parents that they are going vegan, the parents get stressed because they don’t want to cook an entire separate meals for their kids, or they might think it’s too difficult.
If you tell your parents that they don’t have to worry about making food for you because you will do it yourself, that shows them how dedicated you are and really proves to them that you are serious.
Even if you’ve never cooked before, it’s a great place to start. Start out with easy meals such as oatmeal, cereal with almond milk, rice, pasta, mashed potatoes, sandwiches, smoothies, etc. There are tons of vegan recipe videos online and cooking videos that you can learn from.
I even have a great Ebook on the vegan essentials and easy vegan recipes which could help you or someone you know go vegan as a teenager. You can find that information HERE.
#4 Cost
One more reason that parents have a problem with their kids going vegan is because of cost.
Parents automatically think that they are going to have to buy their teenager all sorts of vegan alternatives such as vegan cheese, vegan milk, mock meats, etc. The thing is that this is not necessary!
Tell your parents that they don’t have to buy you anything extra. Let your parents know that you will eat food that is already available in the house that they buy for themselves such as fruits, vegetables, potatoes, pasta, lentils, beans, rice, oats, cereal, nuts, seeds, etc.
If you have a job you can buy your own vegan alternatives yourself that you want. However, if you don’t have a job, you can always do some work around the house or do some extra chores in return for your parents buying you some vegan specialty items of your choice.
If that isn’t an option, you can always look at recipes online and try to make your own homemade vegan ice cream, cheeses, mock meats, or whatever you want.
#5 Examples of Other Thriving Vegans
One additional thing you can do to get your parents on board is showing them examples of people thriving as vegans!
Show them other vegan teenagers whether they be on youtube or Instagram. I am a teenager still! I went vegan when I was 16 so feel free to share me as an example.
Show them vegan doctors, and even vegan parents. If they see that there are lots of other people eating the same way as you, they won’t find it as weird.
If you think you won’t be able to go vegan as a teenager, try some of the above tips and see if that works for you and your family!
