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LUV4All Interview with Katrina Fox: Founder of Vegan Women’s Leadership Network
By Katrina Fox

Katrina Fox is the Founder of Vegan Women’s Leadership Network. She has worked as a senior reporter, features writer, sub-editor and editor, both on staff and as a freelancer, on a broad range of print and online media in the UK, US and Australia. Since becoming an ethical vegan in 1996 after “a school teacher called Kay opened my eyes to the countless ways animals are used, abused and exploited for human consumption or entertainment,” her mission has been to educate, inform and inspire as many people as possible to embrace a vision of a world in which all beings are free to thrive.

She’s the Founder and Editor of VeganBusinessMedia.com, host of Vegan Business Talk podcast and author of Vegan Ventures: Start and Grow an Ethical Business, the first global book providing success strategies for aspiring and existing vegan business owners. She was also a regular contributor to Forbes online for a year, writing about vegan and plant-based business.

Racine: Hello Katrina Fox. You’ve been chased by riot police during an action to close down a farm that bred kittens for vivisection–which you succeeded at–and you’ve participated in the second and third wave feminist movements. You’ve written extensively on the interconnections between human and animal social justice.

Your resume is breathtaking. You’ve written about, spoken out about, even performed for the causes that are so dear to your heart and sense of justice. You’ve done it all. And now, in the midst of a pandemic, you founded Vegan Women’s Leadership Network. Tell us how the journey you’ve travelled, emotionally and physically, has culminated in this Global Mission.

Katrina Fox:  I went vegetarian at the age of 11 but didn’t have the words for it back then. I come from a working-class family in the UK. My mum would serve us up things like beef burgers and chips. I asked her one day where the beef burger came from.

Once I realized that the beef was once a living cow, I was absolutely horrified and was not going to eat it anymore. Then I made the connection that the chicken we ate on Sundays was an actual living hen. I made the same realization with fish fingers and so on.

I always had an affinity with animals. I had a really strong bond with my cat Kitty, who I grew up with. So from that point on I stopped eating meat.

However it wasn’t until 1996, that I actually became vegan.

I did some animal rights activism in the late 80s and somehow missed the vegan memo.

I would eat vegetarian cheese but would still wear leather. I thought I was pretty cool. Then I went to a demonstration in Oxford, UK. They would bring activists from all across the country on coaches, to protest against this farm that was breeding kittens for vivisection.

It got a lot of media coverage and I wanted to get involved. So I got on a bus to go the demonstration. On the coach, I sat next to this lovely woman by the name of Kay Holder who was a school teacher at the time. With events like this, people can sometimes get a bit abusive or aggressive when you hand out leaflets. Kay would always remain calm in these situations.

On the journey, I pulled out my Marmite and cheese sandwich and offered it to her.

She said, “No, thanks, I’m vegan”. I was very proud and said that the cheese was vegetarian and didn’t contain animal rennet. And again she said, “No, thanks, I’m vegan”. She advised me of how cruel the dairy industry is and explained why.

My jaw dropped. Because like everyone, I was sucked in by ads where ‘happy’ cows were raised in fields and we milked them for our purpose, as if they exist just for us to consume.

I felt guilty for a while, frustrated that I didn’t already know what went on in the dairy industry.

From an eating perspective, I became vegan then and there and quickly switched out my cosmetics, skincare, fashion etc.

Throughout my journalism career I’ve always tried to highlight injustice, and provide voices for marginalized communities, from women to LGBTIQ people.  Animal advocacy also has always been a big passion for me.

In 2015 I wanted something new in my career, as the journalism industry was changing a lot. I started hanging out with entrepreneurs and I found that a lot of them didn’t know how to do their own PR. They thought that unless you hire a publicist, which can be quite a large investment every single month, you couldn’t get into the media.

So initially, I would help these entrepreneurs. At the time, I was helping any kind of business owner from any industry.

Eventually, I drilled down and thought about who I really wanted to work with. Who am I most passionate about?

I realized it would be vegan business owners and entrepreneurs. I have a vested interest in having them succeed, because I’m their consumer and I’m passionate about veganism from an ethical perspective. I want the whole world to be vegan. And I think vegan businesses help drive that change.

So I wrote a book called Vegan Ventures. I wrote it because I wanted to read a book where I could learn about how to start a vegan business. Nobody had written it, so I saw that as a sign from the universe.

I got on board 60 vegan business owners from around the globe, predominantly the US, some in Canada, some in Australia and some in the UK.

I also help vegan business owners get more publicity through one-on-one consulting, and through my online course called Vegans in the Limelight.

At the beginning of this year I felt called to do something in the vegan women’s leadership space. When Covid-19 hit in March, I pre-launched the Vegan Women’s Leadership Network to see if there was enough interest, and there was! So we officially launched in July.

Racine: Why do you believe it is important to have a leadership network solely for women? And why specifically vegan women?

Katrina Fox: I don’t like to gender stereotype but women often tend to do business and to network differently from men. We need more women leaders and particularly those driven by compassion for all beings, i.e. vegan women. We’ve seen how popular general women’s networking and leadership groups are. So it made sense to create something where vegan women could come together and support like-minded sisters!

Racine:  I’m honoured to be a member of Vegan Women’s Leadership Network Members receive exclusive access to live webinar trainings on various aspects of leadership, as well as virtual meetups. Tell us about a few of the exciting live online events, offered free to premium members of Vegan Women’s Leadership Network.

Katrina Fox: We’ve been lucky to have some excellent presenters who are experts in their field. They offer a range of live webinar trainings (which are recorded and made available in the Members’ Video Library) on all aspects of leadership, including self-leadership, as well as marketing, personal branding and more. For example, we’ve had presentations on how to overcome Imposter Syndrome, how to be heard in times of chaos, what to know if you want to join a board, and an upcoming one on how to improve your public speaking, among several others. We also have regular virtual meetups, and these networking events with vegan women leaders from across the globe have proved to be very popular.

Racine: What dreams do you hold for the future of the Vegan Women’s Leadership Network?

Katrina Fox: I’m really keen to grow the numbers in the Network to keep it sustainable, so we can support more vegan women to become leaders in whatever capacity works for them. I’d love to collaborate with sponsors and partners who are keen to support this vision.

Racine:  Do you have anything else that you would like to add?

Katrina Fox: We have Gift memberships available, so vegan women can ask their partner, family member or friend, to buy them an annual membership for their birthday or other occasion. Or, if you know a vegan woman who would love this, you can buy it as a gift for them. We also accept donations if you don’t want to join as a member, but would like to support the Vegan Women’s Leadership Network.

Racine: Thank you so much, Katrina!

Read another LUV4All article by Katrina Fox: This Ban On Vegan ‘Meat’ Labeling Sets A Dangerous Precedent (It’s Also Hypocritical)

Back to Issue 3

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