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Millennial Vegan - Tips for Navigating Relationships, Wellness, and Everyday Life as a Young Animal Advocate
Millennials, people between the ages of 15 and 34, make up nearly half of the current vegan population. Despite being dealt a bad deal by prior generations, this generation is increasingly able to see past all the ways our society indoctrinates us to use nonhuman animals.
Millennial Vegan offers support to this important group by providing tips for advocacy, strategies for communicating with unsupportive peers, advice on issues related to dating, and information on maintaining personal wellbeing. The movement for nonhuman animals depends on the support of millennials, and this guide will help this already aware group maximize their ability to be the best vegan advocates they can be.
Millennial Vegan offers support to this important group by providing tips for advocacy, strategies for communicating with unsupportive peers, advice on issues related to dating, and information on maintaining personal wellbeing. The movement for nonhuman animals depends on the support of millennials, and this guide will help this already aware group maximize their ability to be the best vegan advocates they can be.
- GenresVegan
120 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 1, 2017
2 people are currently reading
70 people want to read
About the author
Casey T. Taft
4 books8 followersCasey Taft is a Professor of Psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine. He is an internationally recognized researcher in the area of violence prevention and winner of prestigious awards for his work from the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, the Institute on Violence, Abuse and Trauma, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
He has developed the only domestic violence prevention programs demonstrated effective for military populations via randomized controlled trials and has been assisting in implementing them across the Veterans Health Administration system and within the Department of Defense. He has consulted with the United Nations on preventing violence and abuse globally; has published over one hundred journal entries, book chapters, and scientific reports, and he is the author of the American Psychological Association book "Trauma-Informed Treatment and Prevention of Intimate Partner Violence.
He is also co-owner of Vegan Publishers, a vegan-themed publishing house, and sees theprevention of violence towards nonhuman animals as a natural extension of his interpersonal violence work.
He has developed the only domestic violence prevention programs demonstrated effective for military populations via randomized controlled trials and has been assisting in implementing them across the Veterans Health Administration system and within the Department of Defense. He has consulted with the United Nations on preventing violence and abuse globally; has published over one hundred journal entries, book chapters, and scientific reports, and he is the author of the American Psychological Association book "Trauma-Informed Treatment and Prevention of Intimate Partner Violence.
He is also co-owner of Vegan Publishers, a vegan-themed publishing house, and sees theprevention of violence towards nonhuman animals as a natural extension of his interpersonal violence work.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
April 2, 2022
Amazingly good for beginner vegans or those who thinking about going vegan! Also, people keep saying how lazy and ignorant millennials are.... this book actually showed otherwise to me! #onestepcloser !
September 16, 2017
A helpful little book for young vegans. But a great source for not so young vegans as well. :) Encouraging and inspiring. Reading this made me feel less stressful and more calm. I am grateful that there are vegan advocates like the author of the book, who still believe in advocating veganism and are not telling vegans to lesser their message and promote "softer" animal exploitation. Great advise and good tips throughout the book!
June 30, 2020
I’m too old to be a millennial and I’m not a new vegan, but once I was a young vegetarian and animal advocate and had a rather rough time. There weren’t any books like this like this for me, at least none that I knew of, and I do think parts of it at least would have been helpful. Even for those more seasoned advocates, I think this title might be a good refresher if you find yourself having more negative interactions with others.
I’ve written before about my almost overwhelmingly negative experiences as a vegetarian animal advocate in my teens and early 20s in a rural red state, in which I was repeatedly bullied, mocked, and criticized by classmates and teachers. I was saddened to read of the young people today having similar experiences—some of which even extend into their own homes, which I thankfully did not endure. However, it is also not terribly surprising that anti-vegan attitudes would continue even in this era of bullying awareness. Vegans are asking people to re-examine values that the vast majority of us grow up with and never question, and by their very existence challenge the notion that we must kill and exploit animals to live full, healthy lives. It’s no wonder people get defensive.
Taft offers up some sage advice for speaking with someone with whom you disagree. It’s difficult, I know, especially if emotions are running high—which they so often do with anything involving animals, food, or traditions—and most vegan issues involve all three! Even if you completely disagree with someone, you can still treat them with respect, you can still listen to what they’re saying and where they’re coming from. That person will most likely notice you behaving in a decent way, and may have their entire opinion on vegans change as a result.
Of course, having a slightly improved view of animal advocates and actually changing one’s own lifestyle are two very different things. Taft is an abolitionist and disagrees with things such as meat-reduction campaigns and other incremental steps. As I noted in a review of another one of this author’s books, I disagree with this outlook. Having the experience of arguing way more than I should have to for the most basic, should-be-common-sense pet welfare issues has impressed upon me that baby steps are sometimes the best things we can hope for, at least as long as veganism is still the minority viewpoint.
I liked that the author pressed the need for young vegans to find their community and connect with other like-minded people. Sadly, quite a few new vegans give up their convictions and turn away from animal advocacy; a common if not the most common reason being for lack of support among friends and family. This is truly a shame, as farmed animals need all of the friends they can get. It doesn’t help the animals nor ourselves when we harden our hearts to “fit in.” Thankfully, finding community is so much easier in this era of social networking; even small towns may have thriving plant-based communities on Facebook, Meetup, and other sites.
I’ve written before about my almost overwhelmingly negative experiences as a vegetarian animal advocate in my teens and early 20s in a rural red state, in which I was repeatedly bullied, mocked, and criticized by classmates and teachers. I was saddened to read of the young people today having similar experiences—some of which even extend into their own homes, which I thankfully did not endure. However, it is also not terribly surprising that anti-vegan attitudes would continue even in this era of bullying awareness. Vegans are asking people to re-examine values that the vast majority of us grow up with and never question, and by their very existence challenge the notion that we must kill and exploit animals to live full, healthy lives. It’s no wonder people get defensive.
Taft offers up some sage advice for speaking with someone with whom you disagree. It’s difficult, I know, especially if emotions are running high—which they so often do with anything involving animals, food, or traditions—and most vegan issues involve all three! Even if you completely disagree with someone, you can still treat them with respect, you can still listen to what they’re saying and where they’re coming from. That person will most likely notice you behaving in a decent way, and may have their entire opinion on vegans change as a result.
Of course, having a slightly improved view of animal advocates and actually changing one’s own lifestyle are two very different things. Taft is an abolitionist and disagrees with things such as meat-reduction campaigns and other incremental steps. As I noted in a review of another one of this author’s books, I disagree with this outlook. Having the experience of arguing way more than I should have to for the most basic, should-be-common-sense pet welfare issues has impressed upon me that baby steps are sometimes the best things we can hope for, at least as long as veganism is still the minority viewpoint.
I liked that the author pressed the need for young vegans to find their community and connect with other like-minded people. Sadly, quite a few new vegans give up their convictions and turn away from animal advocacy; a common if not the most common reason being for lack of support among friends and family. This is truly a shame, as farmed animals need all of the friends they can get. It doesn’t help the animals nor ourselves when we harden our hearts to “fit in.” Thankfully, finding community is so much easier in this era of social networking; even small towns may have thriving plant-based communities on Facebook, Meetup, and other sites.
September 11, 2021
"Soneday we will have a vegan world. It may not be in our lifetime, but it will need to happen for us to remain on this planet. Until then, though, we have to take care of each other and build a supportive community"
Sometimes being a vegan in a non-vegan world can be quite lonely, but this book has given me some really good advice how to deal with non-vegans. Being assertive, not agressive or passive. The 'angry vegan' archetype is also mentioned, we shouldn't hide our genuine feelings so others can feel comfortable. Of course we have to be tactful, but never speaking up or lying to make pre-vegans feel comfortable won't help us, will only lock us up mentally and emotionally, creating bigger problems along the road.
Definitely recommend this book to any vegan, especially new ones. Your feelings are completely natural, and this book could give you some confidence and security.
Sometimes being a vegan in a non-vegan world can be quite lonely, but this book has given me some really good advice how to deal with non-vegans. Being assertive, not agressive or passive. The 'angry vegan' archetype is also mentioned, we shouldn't hide our genuine feelings so others can feel comfortable. Of course we have to be tactful, but never speaking up or lying to make pre-vegans feel comfortable won't help us, will only lock us up mentally and emotionally, creating bigger problems along the road.
Definitely recommend this book to any vegan, especially new ones. Your feelings are completely natural, and this book could give you some confidence and security.
October 27, 2025
This book has reach! The idea that veganism is our future is centerfold. Whether or not a vegan can feel whole in a relationship with someone who eats meat is in question. This book opens doors to new ideas. One can teach a child from birth, a lifestyle where being vegan is kind. Teach a child to embrace veganism. Teach them that it is their ethical responsibility to enjoy disrupting social norms in all the right ways by pursuing a lifestyle where abstaining from meat drives them.
February 18, 2024
Millennial Vegan is a book on navigating everyday life as a young vegan written by the clinical psychologist Casey T Taft. This book deals with various aspects of life that a young person would go through while being a vegan – be it with parents, at school, facing bullying, or choosing relationships.
This book is split into chapters that are easy to navigate and also deals with some of the most common questions that vegans face – such as ‘how people get their proteins’ (a myth that has been debunked several times), and also the bullying one might face in school as a result of that. He also talks about the anger that one could have, given that being a vegan, one has already seen several atrocities on non-human animals, and also how the system is quite rigged against millennials, when it comes to the cost of living or the price of property.
Despite the book being well presented, I wonder whom the author was targeting and if he was merely preaching to the choir, if this book was meant to be read only by people who are already vegan. Moreover, I felt that the author used millennial interchangeably with ‘teenager’ and I feel the latter and their parents would have been the most appropriate target audience for this book. This is considering how the author did not talk about dynamics at the workplace, social events as to how to politely decline a non-vegan snack offered, or even bullying faced from adults.
As a vegan myself, to me it was an easy read but again, I was uncomfortable with the author’s assumption that the only reason why any person becomes vegan is over compassion for animals – while that is true of many; to me the clinching argument was the environment and for many others, there could be several other reasons – or a combination of many as not all of them are mutually exclusive either.
To conclude, I had an enjoyable, quick read, mostly content that I already agreed with and could relate to many of the situations that the author spoke about, but it could have tried to reach a wider audience. On that note, I award the book a rating of three on five.
This book is split into chapters that are easy to navigate and also deals with some of the most common questions that vegans face – such as ‘how people get their proteins’ (a myth that has been debunked several times), and also the bullying one might face in school as a result of that. He also talks about the anger that one could have, given that being a vegan, one has already seen several atrocities on non-human animals, and also how the system is quite rigged against millennials, when it comes to the cost of living or the price of property.
Despite the book being well presented, I wonder whom the author was targeting and if he was merely preaching to the choir, if this book was meant to be read only by people who are already vegan. Moreover, I felt that the author used millennial interchangeably with ‘teenager’ and I feel the latter and their parents would have been the most appropriate target audience for this book. This is considering how the author did not talk about dynamics at the workplace, social events as to how to politely decline a non-vegan snack offered, or even bullying faced from adults.
As a vegan myself, to me it was an easy read but again, I was uncomfortable with the author’s assumption that the only reason why any person becomes vegan is over compassion for animals – while that is true of many; to me the clinching argument was the environment and for many others, there could be several other reasons – or a combination of many as not all of them are mutually exclusive either.
To conclude, I had an enjoyable, quick read, mostly content that I already agreed with and could relate to many of the situations that the author spoke about, but it could have tried to reach a wider audience. On that note, I award the book a rating of three on five.
July 14, 2018
This was a good introduction to the vegan lifestyle, and it successfully outlines any obstacles new (or long-term) vegans may face.
Though, at times the author took a clinical standpoint which disengaged me from the point they were trying to make (though valid/realistic points, as they are a licensed therapist), and some passages/chapters read as 'preachy,' being a bit of a turn off.
Though, at times the author took a clinical standpoint which disengaged me from the point they were trying to make (though valid/realistic points, as they are a licensed therapist), and some passages/chapters read as 'preachy,' being a bit of a turn off.
November 2, 2018
my vegan book club chose this title even though there aren’t millennials in the group. i wasn’t there for that meeting. i’m not a millennial or a new vegan and i think that’s the target audience. some good tips. it’s easy to read and sectioned in a way that you can read what interests you.
April 4, 2017
A must read. Clear, concise & perfect tool for young vegans.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews