I had a previous post where I listed my top 10 Super Vegans, and in retrospect after I had listed it I realized that there was only 1 female vegan represented. Shame on me! And many of you pointed that out.
So I decided to overcome my ignorance and learn more about my vegan sisters in the trenches with us. It was harder than I thought, not because there aren’t a ton of vegan feminists and activists out there who are women, but because living in a male dominated society I think men still get greater “air” time if you will. Could also be our female vegan heroes are quieter about their activism.
As with the previous list of great vegans, in this list I have tried to offer up vegan grrls who are not well known. This meant leaving out a lot of female actors who are vegan as well as many of the well known vegan women in our movement.
So, Carol J. Adams isn’t on this list and neither are Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders, Ruth Heidrich the tremendous vegan athlete and activist. Ingrid Newkirk of PeTA is not here either. You also won’t find the likes of Ellen DeGeneris or Alicia Silverstone.
This list is to hopefully shine a bit of light on those vegan women who are doing great work but that – I hope – most of you haven’t heard of.
Without further ado, here is my list of the top 10 vegan women that you should check out and support. There is no order to this list:
Freya Dinshah
Freya Dinshah is the current president of the American Vegan Society, the first vegan society in America which she founded with her late husband H. Jay Dinshah.
You can listen to a great interview with Freya by the folks at Vegan Radio. Freya comes in at around 39 minutes, definitely worth a listen. Also, you might want to join the American Vegan Society. It’s only $20 a year or $10 if you’re a po’ vegan 🙂 And you get 4 super cool American Vegan magazines per year.
Jenna Torres
Jenna and her husband Bob founded Tofu Hound Press and they used to do a terrific radio show called Vegan Freak Radio. That seemed to have ended in 2009. However, if you open up iTunes Store and search for “Vegan Freak Radio” you can still listen to the 17 awesome podcasts that they did. All FREE!
I’m not sure what Jenna Torres is doing of late, she and Bob seem to have gone UC (under cover), but you can still get their book Vegan Freak which is very eloquent and worth a read. Should be on all vegan’s bookshelves.
Colleen Patrick-Goudreau
Many of you might know Colleen, but I had only a passing acquaintance with her before seeking out vegans for this vegan grrl power list.
Colleen is a tireless animal activist, hitting folks squarely in the tummy with yummy tasting vegan food. She is a writer, speaker and chef, offering vegan cooking classes as well as a terrific podcast called Vegetarian Food For Thought which won the Veg News Podcast of the Year award.
The one book I’d recommend of hers if you’re looking to help others who are interested in veganism is The 30 Day Vegan Challenge. Also great for long time vegans needing a kick in the pants.
Tonya Kay
Tonya Kay is an actress, dancer, model, writer, nutritionist and performance artist who is a master of many trades and Jill (Jack) of none 🙂
Some things that you might not know about Tonya is that she is a raw foods vegan, pagan and Chaote (a practitioner of Chaos Magic which is a school of modern magical tradition).
Tonya was also valedictorian of her high school graduating class and played the lead role in Bold Native a fictional film about the ALF (Animal Liberation Front).
Taryn Terrell
Vegans sometimes get a bad rap because people are under the misunderstanding that we eat grass and leaves and so perhaps we’re weak and scrawny. I think that the typical vegan hipsters didn’t help that image.
Robert Cheeke as well as Kenneth Williams have broken down these stereotypes. Taryn is ripping them up and throwing them out of the ring. She was formerly known as Tiffany when performing for WWE, though from what I can tell she is onto other things now.
Kirsten Rosenberg
Kirsten has written articles for The Animal’s Agenda and has also been the co-owner of the vegan bakery Sticky Fingers. Mmmm, I’m getting hungry now.
Kirsten is currently a rock n’ roller with the tribute band The Iron Maidens. You can hear them in the rock video below this post.
Nellie McKay
Nellie McKay is a very talented musician and singer-songwriter and won an award for her performance in the 2006 Broadway play The Three Penny Opera.
Her song “Columbia is Bleeding” was written about the atrocities and cruelties committed by Columbia staff towards animals. She is often performing in support of animal causes at places like Farm Sanctuary amongst others.
Juli Crockett
Juli like a lot of my favorite veg*ns both male and female are multifaceted and multi-talented individuals.
Juli for example is an undefeated boxing champion, even though she only fought 3 bouts, but still.
Not only that, but she is working on a PhD and is the lead singer of the alternative country band The Evangenitals. She is also the producer of the art film The 1 Second Film as well as being a playwright too.
Talk about these overachieving vegans!
Linda Blair
Linda is perhaps best known for her performance as the young girl in The Exorcist. A film in my opinion that is the best horror flick ever.
Linda is also a tireless advocate for animals as well as having performed in over 3 dozen feature films and a roster of TV shows too including MacGyver and Murder, She Wrote.
She also co-authored the book Going Vegan and founded and spends much of her time with the non-profit organization the Linda Blair WorldHeart Foundation that rescues abused, neglected and mistreated animals.
Emilie Autumn
Emilie is another very talented vegan musician who has been frank and honest about her personal struggles with bipolar disorder.
She is a very talented violinist and her music has been called Victoriandustrial and Glam Rock. Not for everyone, I have found her music to grow on you the more you listen to it.
She became vegan for ethical reasons, and much like Carol J. Adams she sees a link between the treatment of women and animals. An idea that I wholeheartedly support as well. She is also a terrific poet.
There you have a list of 20 veg*n soul sisters doing great work for the animals and for humanity as well. Truly honest humanitarians. As always, if you think there is a glaring omission please add your favorite vegan power grrl in the comment section.