15 year old recently switched to veganism
Hi everyone! I'm a 15 year old in high school and recently became vegan more than a month ago after realizing that it's a moral obligation. I watched a speech about it on YouTube and became vegan overnight simply because of the logical arguments in the speech, about 2 weeks later watched Dominion which helped me see what I'm contributing to when I buy animal products, and now I watch debates, discussions, and read books about veganism.
It really bothers me how my friends think it's okay to not be vegan. As soon as I announced that I was going vegan for ethical reasons, one of my friends said "you're not going to be one of those crazy vegans, right?" Another one of my friends always buys chips from the vending machines and always says that I can eat one and she won't tell anyone that I broke my vegan streak. I honestly don't know if she's joking or not when she says this but it's not okay. I try and explain to her that I'm not being vegan for anyone but the animals and by my own moral compass every time. Another person asked why I was vegan and even tried explaining how she heard vegans don't get enough nutrients which is obviously false with well-planned meals, just as any person, vegan or not, should do. I don't think people understand how much this affects me.
Whenever I tell someone new that I'm vegan, they always ask why and I tell them something simple like "I don't agree with it ethically" or "I watched a speech about it" so I don't sound pushy. But I wish I didn't do this. I just don't know what to say in a few sentences. I want to have open discussions about veganism and question people on why people think it's okay to eat animal-products. What can I say instead of this when people ask me why I'm vegan?
I also just absolutely hate seeing the cognitive dissonance of everyone around me. My friends say that they think zoos are incredibly cruel and how the animals suffer all their lives just for us to gawk at them. I even asked one of my friends after she said this whether she would ever consider being vegan and she said probably not!
I'm just so upset that nobody understands how their food is made, sourced, and killed. People think the dairy and egg industry aren't cruel when they fund slaughterhouses, animals are forcefully impregnated, and live their entire lives in suffering. If I had known about the industry earlier, I definitely would have made the switch much much earlier as well.
What can I do at my age for advocacy and to raise awareness about veganism? I am so incredibly passionate about being vegan!