Resources for vegetarian preteens?

[kythe]

My 11 year old daughter has talked about wanting to go vegetarian for months.  I used to be for a time before she was born, and I have long since regretted not raising my kids as vegetarian.

She is very into animal rights issues, and in her head she believes it is wrong to eat meat when we can be healthy without killing animals.  But not surprisingly, she has trouble resisting meat when she is around it, like at school or with family who is eating her "favorite" foods.  I've been cooking vegetarian at home, but dd needs to be able to actively make her own choices, and to have her own learning about vegetarianism vs meat eating reinforced.

I ordered a free PETA kids magazine online, and she loved it.  But it seems to be a single issue sample, not a monthly magazine.  Does anyone know of any magazines or other sources for kids that have ideas or recipes for vegetarian kids?  We need a practical guide of some kind that is geared for her age group, not just adult-oriented (i.e. boring) cookbooks.

[MrsSlocombe]

What a great choice you daughter is making.  It sounds like you are joining her in this, and cooking good things for her at home, so she is going to have an automatic advantage that way.

I thought Peta's Grrr! magazine was published several times per year, but I just checked the site, and it appears that this is not the case.  That's too bad.  If she liked the celebrity aspect of the magazine she received, she would probably like Peta's Animal Times, as well.  It is very celebrity oriented and most smart eleven year olds would probably find it suited to their reading level.  The articles are short, with emphasis on peppy language and entertaining the reader.  Even the recipes, while not necessarily just for kids, are usually easy.

Aside from that, it really does seem like there is a big gap in the veg*n resources available.  I think it's partially because many vegans and vegetarians don't want to have kids.  We have a hundreds of cookbooks, recipe blogs, and Meetup groups for adults, but so much less for kids.  Whenever I hear of a child in this situation, I wan to remedy it.  Perhaps I'll be able to start something myself within the next couple of years.  I'd really like to.

This is more for parents than for kids, but I've always liked this Vegan Family site:

http://www.veganfamily.co.uk/

There are many other sites for vegetarian parents, as well.  I hope someone posts with some resources for actual kids, as I'd like to see them, too.  (Our vegan baby is due in June.)

[kythe]

Thanks.  I just subscribed to PETA's Animal Times.  It apparently comes 4 times a year, still not a monthly magazine but better than a one-time resource.  The thing with kids is that they need regular reinforcement of their beliefs in order to stick with their decisions.  She has a vegetarian friend at school who got her into this phase, but it I want it to grow into something more than a phase she's going to need more encouragement.  Adults can be self-motivated to continually read books and keep up with websites, but kids tend to flit from one thing to another.  It does seem there isn't much out there to help kids make a more long-term commitment to a dietary change that isn't really common.