By Nadely Requena, VRG Intern

What once began as a way for Hannah Kaminsky to share her knitting crafts, her BitterSweet Blog slowly evolved into a career promoting veganism. Her website now highlights her creative vegan recipes, food photography, playful craft patterns, and includes vegan product promotions.

Kaminsky has continuously worked to create and photograph food pieces for the Vegetarian Resource Group’s Vegan Journal, VegNews, and Allergic Living, among others. She is also the author of nine cookbooks, including My Sweet Vegan, The Everyday Vegan Cheat Sheet, and The Student Vegan Cookbook. Kaminsky’s dedication to breaking the barrier and stereotypes that revolve around vegan cuisine is what fueled her to continue her freelance work for over a decade.

Growing up in Connecticut, she gained an appreciation for the arts at an early age. Knitting was an activity present throughout Kaminsky’s childhood and her family even had a dedicated crafting room in their home. While others tried to teach her the mechanics, she eventually learned to knit and crochet by following instructions in a book.

Kaminsky frequently engaged in sketching and painting, but she always felt she could never express the vision in her mind properly. Upon picking up photography, however, Kaminsky immediately felt comfortable as she could instantly express her intent.

Her urge to become vegan developed during high school as she had vegan friends and viewed them as “cool.” However, after eating bland and repetitive food as a result of not knowing how to properly feed herself, Kaminsky decided to put research into the diet. Upon discovering the cruelty present in the animal industry, she realized being vegan was something she not only wanted to do for herself, but for the world.

She often cites her parents as the reason why she was able to be successful with her diet. They had continuously expressed their concerns with her changing diet, so with the help of a dietitian, Kaminsky learned to properly supplement herself. However, Kaminsky’s parents were adamant about not preparing separate meals and it was then that her passion for cooking blossomed. It was through these realizations that Kaminsky was able to build a career for herself.

“(Cooking) became a bigger part of the blog, I started writing recipes, and eventually that took over the blog and with photos it was just a function of documenting what I was making and eventually I got more into that and that became the trajectory of my career,” Kaminsky said.

However, she acknowledges the scary instances that came with having a freelance career. From having to carve out a nonexistent niche of vegan writing and photography, living a piecemeal life, and then encountering the pandemic, Kaminsky has experienced her fair share of difficult moments pursuing her advocacy work.

Her perseverance and passion for her career has kept her afloat. Kaminsky’s unique job provides her with the variety she craves and most importantly, allows her to dismantle the idea that vegan food is too difficult, expensive, and not full of flavor.

“I want people to compare my recipes to ‘regular’ omnivore recipes and say this is a great muffin and not this is a great vegan muffin,” Kaminsky said. “I just want to show people it’s just food and maybe it’s better food. I don’t want it to be a weird thing like you need to eat vegan as if it’s a different cuisine. Everything can be vegan.”

Kaminsky continues to share her lovely recipes, exceptional photography, and knitting ideas on the Bittersweet Blog. Be on the lookout for a future cookbook coming out this August!

Blog: https://bittersweetblog.com/

Personal Website: https://hannahkaminsky.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannah-kaminsky-64117a72

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MySweetVegan/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bittersweet__/?hl=en

Twitter: https://twitter.com/bittersweet__