Fabiola di Sotto, who wanted to explain to her children (and all children) why to be vegan

Fabiola di Sotto – Roman, 22 years old, food content creator, mother is already the author of «Dreadful vegetable cuisine», he didn’t write a book about being vegan, but he wrote a book about social inclusion. This is what strikes you when you scroll through the pages of his «Mom, I don’t want animals on my plate»just released in bookstores (if you like cookbooks, here you will find our all-time favorites) and written to tell and explain to the little ones the choice of those who do not eat animal raw materials.

Because, in the end, what can be a choice like any other, like all decisions that lead in a single direction can be a burden to bear, especially for childrenwho find themselves unable to explain why they feel different, given that what they eat is different. Fabiola, then, tries to help them, with a comic in which the alter egos of her children (Leonardo, five and a half years old and Giordano, two and a half) they explain to their friends the reasons for their choice and that of their parentsdoing it a universal lesson of respect for differences.

«The idea of ​​writing this book was born when one day, watching my little son playing happily in his room, I thought of a way to talk to him about my and my husband’s choice to be vegan», says Fabiola. “Surely bringing your children to a shelter where they can see free animals, be able to touch them and empathize with them, is a big stepbut how could I make my child feel less alone, not so different from others? Surely meeting peers who experience the same situation is the ideal choice, but not all of us have the possibility: and therefore, Since little ones love fairy tales so much, why not a good book?».

How long has it been since you ate meat?
«I have been vegan since 2011, so a long time. I got married in 2017, to a vegan chef, so our choice was common. Then we started a family and the first question I asked myself, during pregnancy, was to understand if this was a healthy diet for my baby. Until that moment I had only thought for myself, I had never asked myself the question.”

And was it, a healthy choice?
«Yes, this experience made me discover a world I didn’t know. Books, scientific publications, and of course nutritionists. I realized I could do it, and do it well. So I also weaned my son following that type of diet. I am a mother, and as important as my values ​​are they will never be more important than the life of a child, so if he hadn’t been more than healthy I would never have done it.”

So do your children grow up vegan?
«I wouldn’t use this term, because I believe being vegan is a choice that must be developed independently, and they are too young to do it. They eat vegetables at home and at school, but it is right that they live their lives as children without carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders. It’s not like when we’re at a birthday party I tell them what they can eat, or forbid them to eat the cake because it’s not vegan. In fact, it happened that they asked me and I told them that it was, even if it wasn’t true: I don’t want them to feel excluded in any way. Food has a lot to do with sociality, and I don’t want it to be compromised.”

How is the vegan choice limiting in sociality?
«As a vegan I have heard people’s preconceptions, I have often felt wrong. I was ashamed, I felt guilty, at fault. Even though it was a choice that concerned me, it was a choice that put me in difficulty with others. Well, I wrote this book to try to be an active part of a change, to prevent my children from feeling the way I felt. Ultimately, the disclosure of this type of choice is also the reason why I opened my Instagram profile and began this journey, a sort of mission: to break down the stereotypes that revolve around vegan nutrition, which are often the result of misinformation ».

How much do your children know about the reasons for this choice?
«Very much, actually. We talk about it, we discuss it, we often ask them if they are okay with it. We try to give them all the tools to understand, waiting for them to make their choices independently. And they actually seem to understand: the child in the book is very inspired by my son, the words I use are precisely his.”

Isn’t there a risk that telling children that eating animals is bad creates an inverse process, that is, isolation of children who do so?
«In my opinion, this depends a lot on the parent, on the way he teaches and explains things. The book is structured to make the child feel included, in any case. I have always told my son that everyone made their own choices, I tell him that I also grew up eating everything, because once upon a time I didn’t know certain things. Each family has its own awareness, or perhaps is not ready to make a choice of this type. We don’t all arrive at the same solution at the same time.”

How do you make a choice like this in your family?
«Nutrition is very much a question of habit, it depends a lot on how the child is used to it. There is a part of attitude, and I understand that the rhythms of life that we lead as parents also play a lot, making it difficult to keep up with meals. Certainly my advice is to try not to overturn everything overnight, but to approach this choice by replacing foods we already eat with equivalent plant foods. This applies to adults and children. But above all we need to work on food awareness. We must try to make an effort in general to bring a healthier diet to the table, to have a higher level of attention in these things. The theme is not the transition to vegan, but to a diet that perhaps moves from pre-cooked, processed and packaged food to greater care in doing things.”