By now, most of us have seen the recent flurry of “vegan” YouTubers who have gone back to eating animal products. Believe it or not, this news has actually been covered by major media outlets.

What upsets me the most about this trend is the possibility that these people could have just been using veganism as a way to gain a following and promote themselves and then, when they wanted even more publicity, they went back to eating animal products and used THAT to promote themselves even further. It’s horrible in my opinion because, for me, veganism has been (and always will be) about the animals.

So, last night I took to Twitter to try to turn a negative into a positive. I tweeted out a post calling on longtime vegans to tweet photos of themselves to let the world know they are doing just fine. Here is my original tweet:

In the wake of all these "vegan" YouTubers who went back to eating meat for whatever bullshit reason, I'm inviting all longtime vegans to post a photo and let the world know you're doing fine. We went vegan for the animals and we'll stay vegan for the animals! 12 year vegan here. pic.twitter.com/MEm66S5Ff4

— Ari Solomon (@VeganAri) March 26, 2019

The response I received has been overwhelming! In less than 24 hours, hundreds of people have responded and reacted to my original post. I’ve been feverishly retweeting them because they’re all beautiful and inspiring! I’m going to embed some of my favorites below. If you’re on Twitter and you haven’t participated already, post a photo! The vegan movement is diverse and strong and proud! 💚