{"id":680,"title":"About Me","description":"Just a blog about me, my art, my travels, inspirations etc..Basically just a CV of the last 5 years of my life lol","content":"

Hello!<\/u><\/strong><\/p>

Thanks for visiting my Vegan Stuff Tee Mill site and reading this blog post! My name is Jess. I'm a 28 year old girl from Scotland although I am living in New Zealand as I type this. I have been traveling for nearly 5 years and my next stop is Japan which I will go next month (Aug 2019) to start my 1 year working holiday visa. I have been vegan for over 8 years, and vegetarian for around 10 years before that. My two main passions in life are animals and art so I'm very lucky that I am able to combine both. I have always been obsessed with sharks since I was very young so I love creating art around sharks and the ocean. My mission in life is to help create a better world for all animals.\"\"I have been wanting to start selling my artwork on clothes for a long time but as I have been travelling it's not been practical for me to print T shirts in bulk and sell them. After spending months trying to find a print on demand site that is sustainable, uses vegan ink and organic cotton, I finally found this one thanks to a friend, so here I am!\"\"When I was 21 I was studying art at college in Scotland, planning on going to University, when my Mum took me to Thailand for my 21st birthday. It was my first time being out of Europe and I didn't even really want to go, I was so nervous and scared which seems hilarious to me now. After 3 amazing weeks in Thailand, I came back home and immediately quit college and decided to work full time in a supermarket to save up and go travel. Going to Thailand definitely changed my views on everything and all I wanted to do was go and explore the world. So after 2 years of working in a supermarket and selling art at craft fairs on the side, I finally had enough money to leave Scotland.<\/p>

My first stop was Dubai for a few days to visit a friend then on to Africa. I stayed with some family in Cape Town in South Africa for a few days and had the most amazing time (the best seeing Great White Sharks!) I think even to this day South Africa is probably the most beautiful country I have ever been to. After a few days in Cape Town I joined a 30 day tour of Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. We travelled in a big truck and camped out under the most amazing starry skies every night. It was the best experience of my life. I got to see so many beautiful animals and did 2 things I vowed I would never do - skydive and bungee jump. After the tour ended in Johannesburg, South Africa I spent a month travelling back down to Cape Town via the garden route along the coast of South Africa which was breathtakingly beautiful.\"\"Just after over 2 months in Africa it was on to India for a month, then Thailand again, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos then back to Thailand. After seeing so many dogs in terrible conditions in India it made me want to volunteer at a dog shelter, so I spent a month at Soi Dog a in Phuket, Thailand which rescues street dogs and dogs from the meat trade. This was another amazing place which I think I have been back to like 3 times since.<\/p>

After Thailand I started a years working holiday visa in Hong Kong. For the first 6 months I worked as an English Tutor in a learning centre which I didn't love, but I was able to talk to the kids about veganism which was the best part! It was here when I first became involved in doing vegan activism after I discovered the world of vegan YouTube. I started going to demos, joining animal rights groups and I started the Earthlings Experience in Hong Kong. For Christmas I joined some friends for a holiday in Thailand\/Malaysia and then went back to Hong Kong but all I wanted to do was activism and help sharks since I had found out about the shark fin trade. I got a part time job in a juice shop which was great as I could volunteer most of time at Hong Kong Shark Foundation. Then near the end of my time in Hong Kong I went to Yulin, the dog meat festival in China to write about it in relation to veganism but ended up joining an American group and helped rescue some dogs which was an unforgettable and emotional experience.\"\"Once my year in Hong Kong was over my friend and I went to vegan paradise aka Bali for a month. We basically ate at as many vegan places as possible, sunbathed, went diving and ate more again. The dream! Then I went to Singapore to stay with a friend for a month where I volunteered for Shark Savers Singapore. Then onto Malaysia again for a month where I started a blog with my friend (greedyvegans.com) Not that I post on it anymore but my friend still uses it and has some awesome blog posts that you should check out! Then it was back to Soi Dog in Thailand and then onto The Philippines to do a 2 month internship at Peta Asia.<\/p>

After nearly 2 years in Asia I started my 1 year working holiday visa in Australia in 2017. I began in Brisbane volunteering at Farm Animal Rescue for a month which was amazing. Then up to Cairns where I started creating vegan art and joined some of the activists up there. It wasn't until I moved to Melbourne that I started joining lots of animal rights group and we were doing stuff pretty much everyday. My last month was spent in Sydney then it was on to New Zealand where I have been for a year and a half. My views on activism have changed a lot since leaving Australia and since I have been in New Zealand I have been focusing on just creating animal rights art. I just recently created my own colouring book (Compassionate Colouring) which is for sale on amazon and would love to create an ocean themed one in the future.\"\"So next month I will move to Japan for a year on another working holiday visa. I have no set plans on what I'm going do there but I hope I will still be able to create art and have an amazing Japanese experience. After Japan I would like to move back to the UK and hopefully work for an animal rights organisation and start my own vegan T-shirt company on the side.<\/p>

\"\"Thanks so much for taking the time to read this blog post! I hope I can write more of them in the future.<\/p>

- Jess \ud83d\udc99<\/p>","urlTitle":"about-me","url":"\/blog\/about-me\/","editListUrl":"\/my-blogs","editUrl":"\/my-blogs\/edit\/about-me\/","fullUrl":"https:\/\/jessicajaneillustrations.teemill.com\/blog\/about-me\/","featured":true,"published":true,"showOnSitemap":true,"hidden":false,"visibility":null,"createdAt":1562909554,"updatedAt":1605110948,"publishedAt":1563183682,"lastReadAt":null,"division":{"id":42042,"name":"jessicajaneillustrations"},"tags":[],"metaImage":{"original":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/5d2ab35c216780.30383146.png","thumbnail":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/5d2ab35c216780.30383146.png.jpg?w=1140&h=855","banner":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/5d2ab35c216780.30383146.png.jpg?w=1920&h=1440"},"metaTitle":null,"metaDescription":null,"series":[],"similarReads":[{"id":664,"title":"The Misery Of Yulin","url":"\/blog\/the-misery-of-yulim\/","urlTitle":"the-misery-of-yulim","division":42042,"description":"The first blog I ever wrote back in 2016 about my time at Yulin dog meat festival in China.","published":true,"metaImage":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/5d26e23d7c08e3.07769531.jpeg.jpg?w=1140&h=855","banner":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/5d26e23d7c08e3.07769531.jpeg.jpg?w=1920&h=1440"},"hidden":0},{"id":649,"title":"Why We Should All Care About Sharks","url":"\/blog\/why-we-should-all-care-about-sharks\/","urlTitle":"why-we-should-all-care-about-sharks","division":42042,"description":"One of my very first blog posts I ever wrote about my favourite animal!","published":true,"metaImage":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/5d27d2f54310d7.98363955.png.jpg?w=1140&h=855","banner":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/5d27d2f54310d7.98363955.png.jpg?w=1920&h=1440"},"hidden":0}],"labels":[]}