I am sure when many of you first read the title of this article and saw the word ‘vegan,’ you initially thought that this post was going to entail another one of those vegans ranting about animal cruelty. Well, you may be pleased to find out that as one of those vegans, I will not be chastising you for eating meat. Instead, I am going to chastise you for something else: the way many people stereotype us as being annoying hippies who shove their opinion down everyone’s throat. Now, I said many people because I know not everyone thinks this way about vegans, and I acknowledge that. However, as a vegan myself, I have had enough experiences where I can safely say that the consistency in which people have assumed that I am another one of those ‘annoying’ vegans is far too great.

Based on what I have experienced, people much too quickly assume that as soon as vegans open their mouths, the first thing that they talk about is veganism. They are under the impression that our life consists of the following: thinking about veganism, talking about veganism, writing about veganism, etc. However, that is not the case for me and as far as I have seen, that is not the case for most other vegans either. It is definitely a part of our lifestyle and is something we firmly believe in, but that doesn't mean it consumes our lives. Also, it doesn't mean it is all we talk about. Based on my own behavior and experiences of fellow vegan friends, we don’t watch you eat a piece of steak and then proceed to comment on how inhumane you are.

Ironically, it is actually the omnivores that mention veganism the most. As soon as people find out I am a vegan (which is typically through me having to deny foods that aren't vegan, rather than me intentionally bringing it up), I am bombarded with a plethora of questions about veganism. ‘How do you get your protein?’ ‘What do you even eat?’ ‘Do you basically just eat salads and tofu?’ ‘If you were on a deserted island with only a pig to eat, would you eat it?’ After these questions that show their complete and utter shock to my ban on animal products, the sarcastic and snide comments shortly follow. ‘You aren't stopping any animals from being killed.’ ‘More meat for me.’ ‘You must think you are better than everyone else.’ ‘Animals were put here for us to eat and use.’

These reactions, questions, and comments come before I can even respond. It’s like people start defending themselves and their lifestyle choice even if I don't say anything negative about it. Just the phrase ‘Oh I’m sorry but I can’t eat that, I’m vegan’ is taken as a personal attack and is automatically defended with obviously sarcastic questions and provoking comments.

I am not trying to slam omnivores and say that all vegans are saints. We aren’t, and I fully admit that. I will share posts about vegan concepts and ideas on social media, but that is my personal page. If you don't like what you see, don't follow/friend me. But rarely will I bring up veganism in conversation unless prompted or questioned by someone else about it. Again, I will admit that I have seen vegans who only talk about veganism and have said some pretty rude things to omnivores when it was completely unnecessary. However, these cases are few and far between and overall, I have gotten more grief from omnivores than I have seen vegans give omnivores.

Now, this article is not meant to make omnivores seem like they are awful people; they aren’t, even if I don't agree with their lifestyle. It was simply meant to be an outlet for me to voice my feelings as a vegan and show that we are ragged on a whole lot more than people realize. So, I simply ask, as cliché as the phrase is, to not judge a book by its cover—we vegans really aren't all as bad as people think we are.