My Transformation
By Derek Cornett, age 16, author of The Chronicles of the Light
"A couple weeks ago, I was asked to write about my life and how I became a Raw-foodist. So, let me present you with the story of my life, and how a couple people and one idea led me to transform my life. As the story goes, I was born in Las Vegas, Nevada, on July 8th, 1988. I was a healthy baby with no physical or mental defects. And, surprisingly, since my mother's physician was a homeopath, I wasn't vaccinated as a baby..."

What Derek Ate Today
Food Diary by Derek Cornett, raw vegan, age 16
"Here is what I eat on a normal, day-to-day basis, to help all the people who are interested in raw foods..." I'm Nuts!
By Alex Malinsky, age 19
"Are nuts addictive or is it just me? I have been raw for quite some time and I still reach for the nuts and seeds. What the heck is going on? Is it that fatty satisfying taste we all crave or is it that crunch that we miss? Maybe we should eat more fruit! I don't know, I'm no raw guru..."

The Amazing Raw Food Hike-a-thon
By Doug Walsh
"A 3000-mile fundraising hike along the spectacular Continental Divide...The idea for the Raw Food Hike-a-thon started with two emails six months apart that I sent out to hiking friends about various hiking adventures..."

An Interview with Raw Vegans Moody and Sandi of Ripped
By Sarah Cunningham, age 16
"Iain (Moody) and Sandi, raw fooders, make up the band Ripped based out of Burlington in Ontario, Canada. On their website you can listen to some of their songs, watch a video, buy their latest cd entitled "A Daily Ritual," and see pictures of the band. You may know their music from the independent horror film Insight of Evil (2004), which featured two of their songs..."

Pamela's Raw Candy
Product Review by Anna Hays, age 18
"Gift giving is one of the most traditional acts of love. There is no doubt that people love giving candy as an expression of their true feelings. Likewise, the lucky loved ones are always most appreciative to receive a sweet treat. A box of candy is symbolic for the sweetness and tenderness shared between friends, family, and lovers. As a raw foodist, vegan, or vegetarian it becomes a little harder to choose the right gift..."

Raw Family Raw Veggie Burgers Product Review
Sarah Cunningham, age 16
"When I first went raw, I did it mainly for health reasons, and I couldn't imagine how difficult life was going to be not having all the packaged, prepared foods I was used to. Salads and fruit are great, but sometimes I craved cookies, crackers, and veggie burgers..."

Alex Malinsky, the teen behind RawGuru.com
By Anna Hays, age 18
"Alex Malinsky is a 19 year old raw vegan born in Kiev, Ukraine but now living in Florida who became interested in raw foods when he was still in middle school. He's been raw for six years now, and Anna had a chance to sit down and talk with him at the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center in Arizona..."

My Raw Food Body: Thoughts on Menstruation
By Anna Hays, age 18
"Menstruation is a hot topic among women in the raw food community, and for good reason. The body goes through many changes and transformations when transitioning to raw. Often times a person will go through a period of intense detoxification and rebuilding of healthy body tissue. Many people experience a healing crisis, or unbalances in some shape or form, which given time, disappear giving way to a new body and mind. This is when life really starts to get good, praise be to raw!.."

Shanti Golds-Cousens on Yoga and Raw Food
By Anna Hays, age 18
"Shanti Golds-Cousens was my very first yoga instructor, and she taught me much more than yoga. She taught me how to flow with the current of life, and live joyously and effortlessly. She introduced me to a completely different realm of being, embracing the ultimate love for Self..."

Mangos
By Lucy Watkins, Vegetarianteen.com Editor
"According to FreshMango.com, mangos are known as the “king of the fruit” because they are one of the most often eaten fruits in the world. There are more than a thousand varieties of mangos available on the market today, all of which come from the original mangos of India and Polynesia..."

How I went Veg!
By Vanessa Woodfin, age 16
"My adventure to becoming vegetarian and then vegan, has been a wonderful experience. It all started when I was 14 and I had just met the love of my life, John. He used to take me to Whole Foods Market and Glaser Market all the time. I just didn't know what to do with all the new food I had never seen before. I always respected that he was a vegetarian, and I tried as much as I could NOT to eat dead flesh..."

New Foods
By Anna Hays, age 18
"Wouldn’t it be amazing if the healthiest foods on the planet tasted just as good as junk food? Don’t we all wish we craved kale salad and cucumbers instead of potato chips and pizza? Eating a healthier diet can be quite a task at first, but as your body begins to assimilate the new found nutrition in whole foods, your tastes will begin to change..."

Living Tree Community Foods Review
By Anna Hays, age 18
"If you’re at all like me, you like variety in your diet. Living Tree sells many different varieties of raw nut butter. You’ll never get bored or go hungry! They sell the staples: almond butter and tahini, which are by far the best I have tasted. I must admit, I have quite a few Living Tree products in my fridge, but for the sake of this review, I will focus on their raw almond butter, original white sesame tahini and California sun-dried olives. "

Dr. Ruth Heidrich Interview
By Amy O'Neill Houck
Dr. Ruth Heidrich keeps moving. A highly decorated runner, when she's not busy competing she has a breathless speaking schedule sharing her knowledge and inspiration about the benefits of a plant-based diet. We were lucky enough to catch up with her for a brief chat.

The Secrets for Raw Beauty
By Angel(A)
"True beauty comes from within. We've all heard this statement many times before, but do we really know what it means? To me it means true beauty comes from what I put into my body. I have been a raw foodist for nine months, and in that time I have become more beautiful than I was before. People who have known me for years ask me, 'What have you done? Have you been to the spa or something?'"

Essential Fatty Acids: What they are, how they work, and where to find them
Anna Hays, age 17
"Essential fatty acids are one component of a healthy, well balanced diet. Healthy fats seem to be getting more press lately, especially in the vegan/vegetarian world, as many people find that they don’t feel their best eating a low fat, high carbohydrate diet. This may be because many people, even vegetarians, are healthy-fat deficient. .."

Interview with a Raw Vegan Teen
Rick, age 16
"It is ingrained into our minds that we must eat three times per day, with meat and dairy and all sorts of grains, etc. Candy, soda, burgers, chicken, fish, french fries, Pop-Tarts, microwavable dinners, and milk are the things we should be worried about, not raw fruits and vegetables. By eating cooked foods, humans do not receive proper nourishment..."

A Safe Haven Under the Desert Sky:
Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center
Anna Hays, age 17
"The Tree of Life is a rejuvenation center created and run by Dr. Gabriel Cousens, M.D., M.D. (H) diplomat in Ayurveda, and his beautiful wife Shanti. A main aspect of The Tree is its focus on a living foods diet. This diet consists of raw, fresh vegetables, nuts and seeds. The diet also incorporates the spiritual and emotional aspects of food, creating blends of flavours and spices sure to satisfy anyone’s need for delicious food..."

Read What Zeke Ate Today
Zeke Winterweb, age 19
"I typically go through spells of either abundance or scarcity as a raw foodist fruitarian...If you add up the calories in the foods below you'll see that they probably go over 3000. However, I am very active..."

Society
Poem by John Edwards, age 19
"Deeply within the mind and body of the factory, we await the answers of our managers cries. | Not knowing why or how, we change the bolts and locks..."

Durians
Rick, age 16
"The taste from heaven, the smell from hell, it's the durian! One of the highest respected fruits throughout Southeast Asia..."

A Two Minute Soup to Rejuvenate Your Body
By Dr. Donald Schnell
"When you are having a salad for lunch or dinner in warm weather and don't necessarily crave hot soup, this innovative recipe for uncooked miso soup will be especially pleasing..."

Aberdonians Choose Raw Diet
From the Aberdeen News website
"For Dan Jerke, a Central High School student, it was an article in the music magazine that caught his attention. The piece focused on a California chef who ate what's called a raw diet and thrived on three or four hours of sleep per night. That prospect of having more energy sounded good to the 16-year-old and he's since forsaken his fast food and cola lifestyle."

WE NEED YOU!! Our site has about 60 young people, vegetarians aged 12-26, working with us on the content. They write articles, answer questions, write product and book reviews...and get published for the world to read. You can write for us, too!

What do you want to see? Feel free to contact us with comments, suggestions, interview ideas...anything at all!