Leaving “Veganism”
Even though Veganuary 2026 is over, people have been leaving veganism in droves for months. What happened and where are they going?
It’s the start of a new year. Pinterest accounts are flooded with vision boards and aspirations, gym memberships are flying off the shelves, and people all over the world are setting goals and intentions to do better and be better in 2026. Many of those intentions are to eat cleaner, which helps amplify projects like Veganuary, an annual global campaign urging individuals to “try veganism” for the month of January (and to hopefully become vegan permanently). Speaking of which, former head of communications at Veganuary, Toni Vernelli, has announced she has joined FarmKind — an animal welfare charity that has just launched a campaign encouraging people to continue to eat animal bodies and secretions, so long as they “offset it” by donating to animal welfare charities (like FarmKind).
When veganism is marketed as something to “try,” or seen as a diet that can help individuals lose weight or feel better, we are diminishing veganism and removing the core meaning of what veganism truly is. Veganism is a principle. Veganism is the belief that humans should live without exploiting animals. Veganism is a doctrine of freedom — freedom from use, not just abuse, from humankind. Veganism is not a consumer identity. Veganism is not a trend, a fad, or a dietary preference.
The confusion surrounding veganism lies at the core for why so many individuals call themselves “ex-vegans,” or why countless people have decided to “leave veganism.” Many people who go vegan do so for themselves. Maybe they want to improve their health, lose weight, or clear their skin. Maybe they want to try something new to be trendy or appeal to a better moral baseline. Maybe they genuinely want to do more for the animals, but lose the plot entirely.
PlantBasedElla
At the end of last year, content creator PlantBasedElla released a video saying that the world needs more “imperfect vegans.” She went on to explain that we need less “perfect vegans” and more people just trying their best to live vegan, even if they make exceptions. I asked Ella what she meant by this, but was extremely confused and disappointed when she elaborated.
In her initial video that sparked this conversation, titled “Why we need more imperfect vegans,” Ella stated, “I think the big problem right now is many people feel very uninspired by the current vegan movement. It’s so focused on being perfect, and I feel like that is driving so many people away — this whole ‘all or nothing’ mentality, which I get so frustrated about. I’ve been vegetarian my whole life, my parents raised me vegetarian, and then I became vegan around seven years ago, but thinking back, I’ve actually probably been a 99% vegan all along.” In the corner of her video, she displayed text that read “I’ve made mistakes and occasional exceptions.” The video has over 308,000 views on Instagram.
Rightfully disturbed by her messaging and the reach it was having, I asked Ella, “What ‘exceptions’ are you making? Necessary medicine? That’s fine. Having a leather steering wheel in a car you bought ages ago? That’s fine. Intentionally eating, wearing, buying, or partaking in animal exploitation? That’s not okay. Mistakes happen. Medicine is necessary for countless people. Intentionally making “exceptions” would make you plant-based.” As vegans, sometimes we are forced to make exceptions when it comes to products or necessities that don’t have animal-free alternatives, like medication. Surely, this is what she meant and I was just misunderstanding her video. Surely, this was the case…right?
A little while later, Ella responded, “I’ll make a video about this soon! But some examples: small exceptions in social situations where the food is already bought (would be thrown away if it’s not finished), when I’m on vacation and there are no options (only vegetarian) like in the French Alps, having a bite of dessert to taste when friends of [mine] offer, but I would not order it myself. This is what has made a 99% plant based lifestyle sustainable for me for 7 years and that is what works for me personally, but I respect anyone who can be 100%!! And these are rare exceptions, I am quite strict but I just cannot be perfect therefor will not pretend to be. You are doing great girl and sending you so much love for the impact you are making by being fully vegan.” I was dumbfounded.
When it comes to accepting non-vegan “food” that would have otherwise been thrown out, this is easily avoidable — simply don’t eat it. By refusing to consume what would have been thrown out, it may have sparked a conversation as to why you choose to remove yourself from animal exploitation, or encouraged whoever bought the animal products to not buy as much in the future for fear of it “going to waste.” When traveling, why would you go to a destination that couldn’t cater to your lifestyle and belief system? Most people would have checked to ensure they would be able to eat properly while on vacation. A quick internet search provided several lodges that offer full vegan accommodation, including the Chamonix, Val d'Isère, and Les Arcs resorts and restaurants. Even if she were staying in a resort or lodge with “zero” vegan options, surely she would have been able to find or make herself vegan meals. Taking a bite of a friend’s non-vegan dessert is also not a necessary part of meal time, so to include this in her excusable exploitation practices is quite confusing. Ella has missed so many opportunities to advocate for the animals and stand up against their exploitation.
Arguably, the most frustrating part of her response is how she frames these exceptions as necessary to sustain her “99% vegan” lifestyle. First of all, there is no such thing as “99% vegan.” You are either vegan or you are not. Veganism isn’t a diet or a trend. There is no scale. It is black and white, there is no gray area. You either believe animals are to be exploited or you do not.
Second, all of these “exceptions” are entirely avoidable and unnecessary. If you truly had been eating a diet free from animal products, wouldn’t you no longer see animal products as food? Wouldn’t you have gotten sick once you consumed the secretions? Although she says these instances are rare, that’s incredibly hard to believe — not mentioning how even less sense it makes to engage in animal exploitation in such an infrequent way.
To devise these acts of partaking in animal exploitation as a requirement for someone to keep engaging in a wishy-washy plant-based diet is deplorable and embarrassing. Ella, you do not know what veganism is, and you never were vegan. She has since decided to call herself plant-based rather than vegan, and move away from vegan language. Animals and the things that come out of them are not food. Ella, do better.
Nicole Raffie
Around the same time as Ella’s video, YouTuber Nicole Rafiee posted about her video titled, “quitting ‘veganism’ after 10 years.” Nicole is a popular YouTuber with over 1 million followers, made famous for her “Chronically Online Girl” series. The video discussing her leaving “veganism” has over 130,ooo views as of writing this.
In the video, Nicole explains that she first started identifying herself as a vegan in her senior year of high school. She went with a friend to a circus performance that included animals, and after looking into the ways animals are abused in such performances, her desire to help animals grew. Nicole explains animal welfare has always been a part of her life, growing up with the desire to one day become a veterinarian. Soon after discovering the horrors of circuses, she discovered the atrocities of animal testing and her advocacy for animal rights increased. She doesn’t remember the exact moment she went vegan, but claims the change happened overnight.
She goes onto express in her video that the vegan community, especially online, is a very unwelcoming environment. She claims that when someone “leaves” veganism, those who remain in the community criticize the ex-vegan for doing so. She also claims that it’s very important for her that she is not a “pushy vegan,” as she believes that the best way to bring people into veganism is with empathy, rather than pushing them away. She goes on to say, similarly to Ella, that the world needs more “99% vegans” and “imperfect vegans.” She alluded to the affect that vegans are pushy and mean, and that they call non-vegans bad people, even when those individuals live in food deserts or are low-income.
Nicole blames her OCD for her issues with veganism — saying that she was thinking “too black and white.” But veganism is black and white so I don’t see how her OCD is to blame for this. The contamination and the mistakes part of veganism are OCD related and are not a moral failing, but these are not reasons of frustration she lists.
Nicole is very open about her mental health struggles with OCD and even appeared on the Howie Mandel’s podcast to speak out about her condition. Nicole explains that many people who suffer from OCD think in absolutes; that everything is in black and white. She argues that veganism is not black and white, that it is practically a spectrum, and that a vegan can do non-vegan things while still identifying as a vegan. For example, she wears real leather, often buying it second hand, but not always. She also eats honey occasionally, doesn’t see an issue eating eggs from a backyard chicken coop, uses and promotes cosmetics (Vaseline and lip-filler) and non-essential medications (Rogaine) tested on animals, and more.
Nicole continues her argument by saying veganism is too extreme and identifying as a vegan online causes her anxiety. She feels that there are some vegans who watch her every move online, hoping she posts something non-vegan so they can “call her out.” She explains that the times she has posted pictures of her in real leather online that she has gotten questioning comments, like “Are you still vegan?” and similar statements, to which she always would reply “Yes.” She believes that making conscious exceptions to veganism still qualifies her as a vegan.
Veganism is not about what you eat, Nicole. It isn’t about what is better for your health or the environment. It isn’t about avoiding food waste or being humane. Veganism is the doctrine that humans should live without exploiting animals; what follows is a lifestyle that doesn’t see animals as commodities for food, clothing, cosmetics, entertainment, or anything else. But even so, as we know, many vegan leathers has been proven to be better for the environment, a plant-based diet helps eliminate food waste and is more affordable than the standard American diet, and, of course, a vegan lifestyle is the most humane lifestyle one can live, so long as their liberation goals are collective.
Frankly, veganism is black and white, Nicole. You can’t be vegan part-time, just as you can not be a feminist part-time. Veganism is a moral philosophy, a doctrine, a belief system — just like any other anti-oppression stance. To not see veganism in the absolute that it is, completely undermines veganism and treats the doctrine as a mere diet, preference, or trend.
Celebrities
There are countless celebrities who have claimed to be vegan and then ditch their plant-based diets publicly, denouncing the vegan movement. Lizzo, Miley Cyrus, Channing Tatum, Samuel L. Jackson, and even one of my favorite artists, Fiona Apple, are just a few of the individuals who have turned their back on veganism. But were they ever truly vegan for the animals? There are plenty of mainstream and prominent celebrities who continue to identify as vegan, but do not match the criteria. Arguably, “faux-vegans,” like the few mentioned below, are worse for the vegan movement than “ex-vegans” or those who never go vegan at all.
Billie Eilish has identified as vegan since 2014 when she switched to a fully plant-based diet. However, she claimed to grow up riding horses and finds that strapping herself onto a non-consenting animal’s back betters her anxiety and stress levels. This is a hobby she still has, and was even spotted at the end of 2025 engaging in the exploitive “sport.” She also wears and promotes cosmetics tested on animals.
Ariana Grande has identified as vegan since late 2013. However, she has and continues to buy, promote, and consume throat lozenges that contain gelatin. She also wears real feathers, suede, and leather, and partnered with Starbucks to create and promote a drink that included egg-whites.
Lewis Hamilton has identified as vegan since 2017 when he switched to a fully plant-based diet. However, even after the switch, he was seen riding on a camel on vacation.
Joaquin Phoenix has identified as vegan since he was just three years old. Out of all of the “vegan” celebrities, he is by far the most outspoken against animal rights issues and uses his platform to raise awareness against the animal agriculture industries. However, for his role in Napoleon, he agreed to ride on the back of a horse to make the film look more authentic. By choosing to use a horse not only in the form of riding, but also for the sake of entertainment, he contributed to the horse’s exploitation.
I truly hope that these celebrities learn from their mistakes and do better for the animals in the future.
A Misunderstanding
Why do so many individuals who claim to be vegan not meet the vegan criteria? Why do so many individuals believe veganism is something that they can pick up, put down, or do part-time? Can we truly expect people to become vegan and stay vegan while veganism is misunderstood and “marketed” incorrectly?
Veganism, so long as it is labeled as a diet by the mainstream, is set up to fail. We are creating “ex-vegans” before these individuals ever go “vegan” in the first place as diets are almost never permanent. Veganism is a doctrine and a principle that humans should live without exploiting animals. It has nothing to do with benefiting the “vegan.” It isn’t about us; it is about others. So long as we view veganism as something that we do to better ourselves, we are losing the plot of veganism entirely. Veganism is not about clearing your skin or losing 15 pounds, it is about liberating animals from the exploitation that humans have forced upon them when we had no right to in the beginning. It is undoing the damage that humans have forced upon animals as we no longer have any reason to use animals. So long as veganism is seen as a challenge or a diet, it is destined to fail. So long as the criteria for being vegan is messy, unclear, or wavering, we are not aiding the vegan movement or non-human animals, we are harming them.
This “99% vegan” attitude isn’t applied to any other social justice movement. We don’t allow men to call themselves feminists if they beat their wives only on Sundays. We don’t allow white people to call themselves anti-racist if they only say the “n-word” while singing along to rap songs. So, why do we allow and provide so many exceptions to the animal liberation movement?
Veganism and the animal rights movement is the only social justice movement where those who belong to the group are expected to befriend and coddle the oppressors of said movement. The Black Panther Party didn’t befriend and give grace to racist police officers and white supremacists. The Suffragettes didn’t coddle patriarchal political powers. Each social justice movement fought hard, strong, and loud to demand they be treated better and to wash away the oppression that kept them and their peers down. Vegans and animal rights activists should not back down and become submissive to those causing the suffering and exploitation we are fighting against.
To this day, veganism is still referred to as a diet by major dictionaries and search engines. To this day, there are still debates within the vegan movement regarding the permission of wearing second-hand animal skin. The animal, the victim, is still left out of the conversation entirely while the focus remains on what we, the oppressor, are allowed to do. Veganism needs to be centered around who the movement is for, not who the movement is lead by; nor should we allow animal users and abusers to dictate how our movement operates.
Burnout, Political Shifts, and Other Issues
Advocating for animal liberation is tiresome. It almost feels like every form of outreach or activism we engage in, we are fighting a losing battle. Veganism and animal rights advocacy can be lonely when around 1% of the population follow a plant-based diet, and of that 1%, how many individuals actually believe in the abolishment of animal exploitation? Showing up for the animals is a wonderful thing, but it almost feels like our advocacy is falling on deaf ears. Most people seem to have made up their minds about animals and they’re going to keep exploiting them no matter what we do or say.
During the previous Trump term, we saw a major switch in the way most people, especially the younger generations, view politics. The country began to split in half, each side trying to be more radical that the other, which caused a lot of left-wing individuals to adapt a plant-based diet and identify as vegan. However, in the years since, the pendulum swung to the right; a hard right. Women’s and People of Color’s rights are being stripped away, I.C.E is killing and kidnapping innocent people, and meat and milk are “back.” As many people shift their political beliefs to the right, many are reverting to what they believe the American white dream to be, a big white family, a submissive white housewife, and a thick white glass of whole milk. There is a direct correlation between the Alt-Right and anti-veganism or the “carnivore diet;” too big of a correlation to include in this article.
With the state of the world as of January 2026, fighting for the liberation of animals can seem inappropriate. Humans are suffering at the hands of other humans who have complete immunity. Despite what most media outlets tell you, Israel, and the countries supporting Israel, are still striking Gaza. I.C.E. agents are sexually assaulting detainees with zero repercussions, children are being ripped from their families, and as of today, January 28th, 2026, eight people (that we know of) have lost their lives at the hands of these federal officers in less than the first month of 2026: Geraldo Lunas Campos, Luis Gustavo Nunez Caceres, Luis Beltran Yanez–Cruz, Parady La, Victor Manuel Diaz, Heber Sanchaz Domínguez, Renée Good, and Alex Pretti. Fighting for veganism, animal rights, and advocating for animals in any capacity at a time like this, seems inappropriate and out of place. If you are continuing to fight for the rights of animals during these trying times, I applaud you. However, if you are able to protest animal rights issues, I hope you are also protesting I.C.E. and helping your community in other ways alongside your animal advocacy.
Not “Angry Vegans”
Vegans, even the most tame of animal rights activists, are often labeled as militant, angry, and forceful by the non-vegan public. As humans, we succumb to our desire to fit in, make friends, and get along with others — this was and still quite is integral to our survival. Adopting veganism often “others” us from our friends and family members. If we went vegan in our formative years, our parents may have viewed us and our new lifestyle as burdensome. We may not have been able to partake in eating birthday cake at friends’ parties, or opted out of going to the school’s fieldtrip to the zoo. For someone with a desire to fit in and a lack of true community within the animal rights space, some may have left veganism out of emotional and social issues.
When we see the way vegans and animal rights activists are treated and spoken about online, we may feel scared to join the movement, especially for those of us who may not have developed strong self-confidence. Veganism takes guts and certainly can have an impact on your emotions. Having your eyes opened to the horrors of the animal exploitation industries and standard practices can turn anyone’s stomach and ignite a fire they didn’t know they had. Some vegan-curious individuals may see how “angry” vegans are and equate that we are unhappy; lessening their desire to join the movement out of fear they could become unhappy people, too. But for those of us who have already adopted veganism as our lifestyle, some may grow tired of being ostracized, laughed at, mocked, judged, or labeled as “angry,” and choose to leave the movement.
The truth is, the opinions of animal users and abusers hold no value to us, just as the opinion of someone misogynistic holds no value to feminists. According to The Guardian’s report in 2019, vegans experience bigotry on similar levels to racial minorities. Vegans, unfortunately, will continue to be laughed at and judged until the vast majority of the population goes vegan, and who knows how long that will take. However, it certainly won’t happen anytime soon the more we silence our advocacy for the animals and ditch our compassionate lifestyles. The non-human animals don’t care how “annoying” or “angry” we are; in fact, they wish we were more intense with our advocacy. The most important thing you can do once you join the animal liberation movement, other than advocating for animals, is to build community with fellow vegans. Without a proper support system, you may be more likely to “leave.”
Can You Actually “Leave” Veganism?
Many vegans argue that if someone is able to go back to viewing animals as commodities, that they were never vegan in the first place. If someone who is vegan can learn of the horrors that exist within animal exploitation industries, how could they possibly resume partaking in those activities?
All of the individuals and scenarios addressed in this article who have “left” veganism, or continue to identify as vegan while not meeting the criteria, were never vegan. To identify as vegan, one must fully and truly understand the meaning behind veganism; something all of these occurrences lack. Again, veganism is the doctrine that humans should live without exploiting animals. To allow yourself to either continue to partake, or revert to partaking in animal exploitation, completely abrogates the meaning and purpose of veganism and animal liberation. A person who does not believe in the exploitation of animals can not be made to believe the exploitation of animals is justifiable.
Once one accepts that non-human animals are not for human use and coordinates their life in a consistent manner, they become vegan; never to contribute to the use of non-human animals again.
Final Thoughts
As a vegan of over a decade, I can say with the utmost certainty that I will remain steadfast in my veganism and animal advocacy until the day I die. Veganism has never been a trend, diet, or fad to me. I have never used veganism or the plant-based diet to accomplish health or appearance-based goals. Since the day I fully accepted and understood that humans should live without using animals, I have never purposefully made any exceptions to this rule.
Veganism and the animal liberation movement deserve dedication, consistency, and conciseness. Remember, this isn’t about us (the oppressors), it is about them (the victims).