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It's Not Easy Being Green
Preteen Vegetarians
By Kelly Burgess
When Robin Hawbaker came home two years ago from an extended stay at her Aunt Wendy's house and announced she had become a vegetarian, her mom, Tammy Hawbaker, didn't think much of it.
"She was only 11 at the time, so I figured it was just a fad," says Tammy Hawbaker. "I was surprised that she stuck with it. Now the whole family eats less meat than we used to."
Today, Robin is a beautiful, rosy-cheeked blond in the gifted program at her Pittsburgh-area middle school. She's also still a dedicated vegetarian. Her decision obviously hasn't done her any harm, but any young person who decides to become vegetarian needs to be sure they don't just exist on junk food and think they're eating healthfully.
Lucy Watkins, editor of Vegetarianteen.com, an online magazine for young vegetarians, says that anyone who had a poor diet before they become vegetarian is going to have a poor diet as a vegetarian as well. The fact is that vegetarians have the same nutritional needs as always. They just need to learn how to get that nutrition in a slightly different way.
On the Vegetarianteen.com site, animal activism is a very visible platform. Young people, especially girls, tend to be very loving and softhearted. Watkins says that, although sometimes teens become vegetarians because it's the latest fad, animal activism is often a spark for young people to become vegetarians. When it's done for "faddish" reasons, they usually don't stick with it. The animal rights kids tend to stay the course.
In Robin's case, she was never much of a meat eater to begin with, but she was an animal lover. Her Aunt Wendy, who sparked her vegetarianism, doesn't eat meat because of animal rights issues, and that was something Robin could identify with. The reason so many vegetarians make their decisions as middle-schoolers is because that's the age when they begin to look outside themselves. As very young children, they probably didn't think much about where their food came from. When they do become aware, many find it repulsive.
