Hello love! Welcome back to my space! It’s Friday, so that means it’s time for another celebration!!! This week I am celebrating Jasmine of Diary Of A Mad Black Vegan! I stumbled across Jasmine’s page a few months ago and immediately knew that I needed her energy in my life!
Jasmine is a vegan food blogger, You Tuber and creatress of Mood Junky a fabulous jewelry line! One of the first videos I saw of Jasmine was of her dancing with her food, and y’all know how I feel about dancing with food! I was hooked!
Jasmine’s upbeat approach to living a vegan life is so fun and refreshing. If you head over to her space you will find amazing smoothie recipes, delicious food, and important conversations about healing our communities and so much more. When I saw Jasmine’s interview with the Afro Vegan Society, I knew I had to reach out to her! Jasmine’s passion for life and for sharing the vegan message is so inspiring and uplifting.
I had the pleasure of having the most wonderful Soulversation with Jasmine, here’s what she had to share:
Thank you so much for being here today! How are you?
I’m doing so good! I’m feeling so good. I’m enjoying this summer and enjoying the weather. I feel like a lot of people feel like they cant go anywhere due to the pandemic but the sunshine ain’t never gone no where. Its there, that’s where the party is at.
Can you tell me how your Instagram handle was created?
I came up with that name at a rest stop in Ohio. When you’re traveling its so annoying to see how many fast food restaurants with junk are available. My parents were not worried about my sister and I, but they were getting some greasy food that they didn’t need to eat. I remember being so frustrated and telling them that this food was killing them and its not healthy. I was so angry! I spent the whole road trip trying to figure out what my vegan name should be. I told my sister my name was going to be ‘Diary of a Mad Black Vegan’ because I am angry at what this is doing to our people. I hate that cruelty is in and its always been popular.
It’s interesting that your Instagram handle is ‘Diary of a Mad Black Vegan’ but you couldn’t be more opposite. When I go to your space is mad pretty, mad vibrant, mad dope..
That’s the duality of it. When you think about the word ‘mad’ there’s so many definitions to it and so I take that word of being mad and being angry. But I’m also mad about all things like a mad scientist, passionate. Exuberantly, enthusiastically obsessed with being vegan, having this representation, showing y’all that you can be a black girl and still be vegan and show that world that this is the way we should be living!
Can you share vegan your vegan journey?
My veganniversary is next week. I cant wait. My sister brought me in. She went vegan about a year and a half before I did so I saw her make the change. Her and I are 15 months apart, so we’ve done everything together.We were raised like twins if she did something then I did it too. When I saw her doing that, I asked her about it and she brought me in and was like a mentor to me and explained things to me and as she was learning, I was learning.
I started to transition around 2016, I took a whole year to transition because it has to be on your time. I started taking out the dairy products. I slowly but surly started taking out the meat off of my plate to the point where my body was like “this ain’t it sis, we’re done”. It was to the point where I was getting sick and my body ex-purged the impurities so I’m a full vegan goddess now! By August of 2017, I wrote in my sisters birthday card ‘we are going to be vegan queens together’ or something like that, and every since then that was the best decision I made in my entire life.
Did you notice any spiritual or emotional changes after to stopped eating animal products?
I felt like I knew myself. I have always been self aware but it was something about questioning everything you knew before. Restarting and making decisions for myself. We all reach a point in adulthood where we start to think through everything our parents have brought us up to be and figuring out “who am I organically” and what have I chosen for myself for my path and my journey. I started to come more into myself. I felt so whole. I became addicted to the feeling of feeling good. When you start to put stuff in your body that makes your body feel good. My mind started to open up. I felt like a goddess, I felt like a queen.
Are there any foods that you avoid?
Im a junk food vegan. I try to stay away froma s best as I can is sugar and soy.
Well that’s going to be a little hard since you just won the win a year of Nada Moo ice cream. Your video entry was BRILLIANT! Have you always been such a creatress?
I’ve always been like this. I tell people that I’m this crazy in real life. I’ve always been this creative and I’ve always loved the music arts. That came organically and I truly love that ice cream. I wrote the song over night.
It sounds like you had an amazing mentor in your sister but I still want to ask is there anything you wish you knew before going vegan?
I wish I would have known that there was such an amazing black vegan community. I wish I knew that there was going to be a lot of ignorant people with a lot of ignorant question. I wish I knew how corrupt humanity and this planet is. For me when I became vegan and having to have these conversations, having to explain these things to people who just don’t get it, was something that I was going to have to do. Its hard to deal with humans.
Lets talk about Mood Junky! I have been seeing you rocking these earrings an I absolutely love them.
I am an artist, I say that I am a multi disciplinary artist because my art form crosses over so many different things. I have always done entrepreneurial endeavors with art. I’ve always done artistic things. Then this quarantine situation, for me I’m a very moody Gemini and I change up because I get bored with certain things so I gotta do something different so when they said we were going to be in quarantine I was like I need something new to work on or I’m going to lose my mind. I bought a bunch or yard and played around with it. I started making these, its a very tedious process but it took my mind off of what was going on in the world. I started making different yarn balls and shaping them and chopping them up into different fruits and making different colors and playing around with it. Before I knew it i was like this is cute I want to turn it into an earring and I just started ricking them for my own mental health. I needed something fun to keep me happy. Y’all have seen me rocking them since we’ve been in quarantine and people started asking me where did you get these earrings from. So many people wanted the earrings so I said alright, I’m going to release it and I need to figure out what I’m going to call it. I asked myself what is my true essence and my art and it is because of my many different moods. I have a mood where I want to just paint on some flower pots, I want to paint on a canvas, I want to created earrings so they are the whimsical creations from the junky mind of a moody Gemini, Mood Junky.
What practices are keeping you grounded during this time?
Meditating. When I bought a house I knew that it had to have a tub because I had this intuition that I was going to go through moments in life where I needed to just soak, reflect, meditate and manifest. That has really been helping me. I’ve been trying to do ‘Soak Sundays’ and just reflect on my life. Reflect and be grateful for all of my many blessings. For my ancestors that endured more than I ever imagine so that I could be her on screen dancing with smoothies and stuff. And truly being a part of this community, my platform has really taken off during this time and its been a time when people are looking at themselves, better themselves and learn how they can create a more plant based environment for their bodies. This community and helping others. I truly love to help. I truly love to be someone that helps others and brings them into a better way of living and that has kept me grounded.
What book has had the greatest impact on your life?
I am truly a Toni Morrison Fan so I can’t even choose one of her books. The one that has made the greatest impact would be ‘The Bluest Eye because walking in this world as a chocolate sister, so many things are forced upon us in society and the way in which she brilliantly explains when you hate yourself it kinda come about and disrupt other things and disrupt your own thinking. That book just really resonated with me.
What are some of your favorite self care practices?
Soak sundays, massages, vegan food. Going to a restaraunt and splurging. prancing around dancing.
What is a simple joy for you?
Making somebodies day. I love being able to impact someones day!
What is a song that instantly puts you in a good mood?
Quincy Jones and Tevin Campbell, Tomorrow
What practices for getting through challenging times?
Reflection, taking the time to stop and pause, coming into yourself and dancing. There is so much power in moving your body. When you move your body you are able to get your mind off of so much stuff. When you feel like you’re going into a depression or you feel like things are negative around you, when you move your body it makes a difference.
What are you grateful for right now?
I’m grateful for new beginnings and meeting new people and establishing new connections. I’ve been in a situation where I’m exploring so many different things and meeting new people in the vegan community and I’m so grateful for that. I’m grateful that I can organically be myself and meet these people. There’s so many elements in life when we feel like we cant be our true selves and there’s such beauty where you can be yourself and that resonates with others and attracts others.
What are you hopeful for?
I am hopeful that the whole world can be vegan. I’m hopeful for transforming other peoples lives through the way I live my life with passion, compassion, humor style and all of that. I am hopeful that me being all of the craziness that I am, can impact and influence others to try and live what I love.
Where can we find you?
Instagram, YouTube , Diary Of A Mad Black Vegan
I had so much fun celebrating and sharing Jasmine today! If you haven’t already, check her out! She is amazing and sure to inspire you to live your life to the fullest! Thank you so much for stopping by and until next time, Stay Fabulous! xo
