"Being young doesn't make you less important."

Age is no obstacle for Unleashed member Anastasia. At 12 years old, she's recognised that animals need a voice and she's going to do everything in her power to speak up for them. Here's her story: 

I have always loved animals. At the age of two I held a tiny dead fly in my hand and refused to put it down because it was ‘pretty’. This love of animals stuck all the way through preschool where I made friends with various bugs in the school grounds, and all the way through primary school, where I bred stick insects and drove my friends nuts with random facts about animals they had never heard of.

Then at the beginning of 2012 I learnt about palm oil and the impact it had on various animals. Did you know that in the last decade 80% of orangutan habitat has been altered or lost? A lot of the rainforest destruction is due to palm oil plantations. Orangutans have been abused and killed due to being in the way of palm oil plantations.

That’s where my passion for animal protection started. I began to research all things about animal rights, from poaching to fur farms. I am most passionate about ending fur farms. I have no idea why I am most passionate about it but to me the thought of animals getting skinned alive all in the name of fashion is disgusting. I wish for a world where all fashion will be ethical.

After watching countless videos, such as Earthlings and Meat the Truth, I was toying with the idea of becoming vegetarian. I finally decided to participate in Meat Free Week. After Meat Free Week, I went back to eating meat but I felt uncomfortable about eating it. I finally decided that I didn’t want to eat animals so I sat down with my mum and told her I would like to be vegetarian. She agreed and all this landed me here -- a 12 year old vegetarian who wants to make a difference.

(Me and my bearded dragon, Rico.)

The hardest part about being vegetarian is that not everyone around you agrees with you. This is where good education can come in handy. If you know your facts, you can answer any question confidently. “Where do you get your protein and iron?, How can you live without meat?, What on earth is a broiler chicken and a bobby calf?”-- these are the types of questions I get on a daily basis, but I love answering them because I know that the information will stay in their head.

I started to blog because I had heard of adults writing blogs about animal protection but never had I heard of a teen writing about animal issues. I wanted to give young people a view from someone their own age. I also started an instagram page just for animal rights. I began to realise that there were so many young people out there who believed that they couldn’t do anything for animals. So many people can’t believe that I am only 12 and a vegetarian. Anyone can be vegetarian/vegan and anyone, no matter how old or young you are, can make a difference for animals. Maybe you are just putting a sticker on your laptop or notebook -- it gets people talking. Maybe you wear a top that has an animal rights quote on it -- anyone could read it and it might just change their thoughts. Maybe it is just one person but that person could tell another, or maybe 5 more people. I might only receive 10 veiws of my blog a day, but that still means 10 people have seen a post about animals that day. :)

Young people can help end animal abuse and if you are thinking of speaking up for animals, I encourage you to help get the message out. Being young doesn’t make you any less important. You can still save animals and change minds. Start making a difference today by taking animals off your plate, finding out more about campaigns for animals, and talking with your friends.

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