Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products. Ethical vegans reject the commodity status of animals and the use of animal products for any purpose, while dietary vegans (or strict vegetarians) eliminate them from their diet only. Another form, environmental veganism, rejects the use of animal products on the premise that the industrial practice is environmentally damaging and unsustainable.

The term "vegan" was coined in England in 1944 by Donald Watson, co-founder of the British Vegan Society, to mean "non-dairy vegetarian"; the society also opposed the consumption of eggs. In 1951, the society extended the definition of "veganism" to mean "the doctrine that man should live without exploiting animals," and in 1960 H. Jay Dinshah started the American Vegan Society, linking veganism to the Jain concept of ahimsa, the avoidance of violence against living things.

It is a small but growing movement. The number of vegan restaurants is increasing, and some of the top athletes in certain endurance sports—for instance, the Ironman triathlon and the ultramarathon—practise veganism, including raw veganism. The American Dietetic Association and Dietitians of Canada regard a well-planned vegan diet as appropriate for all stages of the life-cycle. Well-planned vegan diets have been found to offer protection against many degenerative conditions, including heart disease, though vegans are advised to make sure they have adequate sources of vitamin B12, iron, vitamin D, calcium, iodine, and omega-3 fatty acids.

Oprah Winfrey (born Orpah Gail Winfrey; January 29, 1954) is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist. Winfrey is best known for her self-titled, multi-award-winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011. She has been ranked the richest African-American of the 20th century, the greatest black philanthropist in American history, and was for a time the world's only black billionaire. She is also, according to some assessments, the most influential woman in the world.

Winfrey was born into poverty in rural Mississippi to a teenage single mother and later raised in an inner-city Milwaukee neighborhood. She experienced considerable hardship during her childhood, claiming to be raped at age nine and becoming pregnant at 14; her son died in infancy. Sent to live with the man she calls her father, a barber in Tennessee, Winfrey landed a job in radio while still in high school and began co-anchoring the local evening news at the age of 19. Her emotional ad-lib delivery eventually got her transferred to the daytime-talk-show arena, and after boosting a third-rated local Chicago talk show to first place, she launched her own production company and became internationally syndicated.

Gary Yourofsky (born August 19, 1970 in Detroit, Michigan, United States) is an American animal rights activist.

He has been arrested 13 times between the years 1997–2001, and has spent 77 days in a Canadian maximum security prison in 1999, after raiding a fur farm in Canada, releasing 1,542 mink in 1997.

Yourofsky was sponsored by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) between the years 2002–2005, and has lectured about veganism to more than 60,000 students in middle school, high school and college.^{[non-primary source needed]}

Gary Yourofsky was born on August 19, 1970, in Detroit, Michigan, United States. He grew up in Oak Park. He graduated from Berkley High School in 1988. He later received a journalism degree from Oakland University.

Yourofsky traces his animal rights advocacy to the early 1990s. His stepfather was volunteering as a clown in a circus, and offered him a backstage tour. During the tour, Yourofsky saw an elephant chained to a post, with scars behind its ears. Yourofsky was shocked, "I looked into the elephant’s eyes and all I saw was sadness and despair."^{[non-primary source needed]} He left the circus when dancing bears wearing ballet tutus were brought out in front of the audience. He started researching the treatment of animals in several industries, and became a vegetarian, then a vegan.

Jimmy Wong is an American actor, musician, and filmmaker. He maintains the popular YouTube channel "jimmy", but also features in a new channel, Feast of Fiction. He is the younger brother of popular YouTuber Freddie Wong.

Wong grew up in Seattle, WA and then attended and graduated from Middlebury College in 2009. He now co-owns and runs Overcrank Media, a Los Angeles based media production company specializing in feature film and online video content, having produced an independent film titled Bear.

Jimmy majored in Theatre and Drama at Middlebury College. After graduating, he moved to Los Angeles in 2010. His most notable roles to date have been as Ted Wong in the upcoming webseries VGHS directed by brother Freddie Wong and Fred Chu in the upcoming film John Dies at the End directed by Don Coscarelli. He has also been a host on Disney's Backstage Pass and starred in the XFX webseries Secret Weapon.

Wong's began focusing on singing while at Middlebury College. His sophomore year he joined the Middlebury College Mamajamas, a co-ed a cappella group. He took a break from the group his junior year after helping produce and organize the recording of the "Madras Album". He also performed on campus with his band The Gremlin's Kremlin. Wong is best known for his musical retort to Alexandra Wallace's infamous vlog rant against Asian students in the library at UCLA which has garnered over 4 million views. He posts new music on his YouTube channel weekly.

Alicia Silverstone ( /əˈliːsiə ˈsɪlvərstoʊn/; born October 4, 1976) is an American actress, author, and animal rights and environmental activist.

Silverstone was born in San Francisco, California, the daughter of Deirdre "Didi" (née Radford), a Scottish-born former Pan Am flight attendant, and Monty Silverstone, a real estate agent born in England. She has two older siblings, a half-sister from her father's previous marriage named Kezi Silverstone and a brother named David Silverstone. She grew up in an upper-middle class home in the San Francisco suburb of Redwood City, California.^{[citation needed]} Her father is Jewish and her mother converted to Conservative Judaism before marriage. She began modeling when she was six years old, and was subsequently cast in television commercials, the first being for Domino's Pizza. She attended Crocker Middle School and then San Mateo High School.

Silverstone won several awards for her film performances. She received multiple MTV Movie Awards and a Young Artist Award for The Crush. For Clueless she received multiple MTV Movie Awards and a Young Artist Award once again, plus awards from Blockbuster Entertainment Award, Kids' Choice Awards, National Board of Review, and an American Comedy Award.