My name’s Nadya. I’m seventeen years old and living with my mom and younger siblings in Germany, but I grew up in America. I would be lying if I said that I saw a documentary, or read a book about animal abuse in the food industry that touched my heart and inspired me to go vegan. For me, veganism has been a way to regain control of my life and health. I’ve struggled with bulimia nervosa for a few years, never being able to last through “recovery” for more than a month or two. I decided that in 2012 I wanted to break through that and fix my relationship with food. One of the ideas I came up with was to try following a vegan diet, and so I did my research, and saw how great it can be- for your health and the planet. It may sound like I was using this as a “diet” and at first, maybe I was. But just in the first few days I started to notice the changes- I was so much happier, I had more energy, I felt better and stronger. I’m hardly three weeks in, but I haven’t felt healthier in years, and I don’t plan on changing that. My decision to go vegan was health-related, and now I plan to stick to it. If anyone reading this is considering veganism but doesn’t know if they can do it or where to start- I’m a high school student living in a house full of omnivores on a fairly tight budget. I get about ten euro a week to spend on my own groceries, and the rest of my food comes from the same things that the rest of my family eats. My eating disorder is still here, and I know I have a ways to go before true recovery, but veganism has helped me so much in being healthier, happier, and just feeling overall better. I think that helping out the animals and being more “green” are great, and I respect anyone who has that much passion for something that they can change their eating and living habits for it, but there are other reasons that veganism can be such a great lifestyle to follow, and I’m glad that I did.