Mayim Bialik, 2011.

Mayim Bialik

Born Mayim Hoya Bialik on December 12, 1975. She is an American actress and has a PhD in neuroscience. She played Blossom Russo on the television show Blossom and Amy Fowler on The Big Bang Theory. She started her career as a child actress and has appeared in many television shows and movies and has done voice work for cartoons. She is also a celebrity spokesperson for the Holistic Moms Network and the author of the book Beyond the Sling: A Real-Life Guide to Raising Confident, Loving Children the Attachment Parenting Way, which will be released in March, 2012.

Quotes by Mayim Bialik:

"I became vegetarian when I was 19 and as of the New Year I am totally vegan. Before, I was eating trace amounts of animal products and was very weary to call myself a vegan. I have a lot of true vegan friends and in their circles I was always hesitant to use that term. As you know, there’s a lot of politicization around veganism. However, it’s now my truth. I don’t even wear leather."

"My husband and I just finished reading the Jonathan Safran Foer book Eating Animals and that just pushed me over the top. I didn’t eat fish, chicken, meat or dairy for years, but if there was a birthday cake or something, I wouldn’t worry about it too much. But once I read the book, the full portrait of what was going on really moved me more than I even wanted to be moved. I mean it sent me to a whole other level."

"I show my love for animals by not eating them or participating in any business that profits directly from their exploitation or – if that word irks you – their "use." You may show your love for animals by eating them. You may love animals, but only "intelligent" ones. You may draw the line anywhere you gosh darn please, but for me, I couldn’t draw it anymore so I just gave up the line. I threw out the line."

"I recently visited an animal rescue sanctuary... The animals living there have been saved from the most disgusting and vile situations; plunked from garbage heaps half-breathing, beaten and left for dead. At this sanctuary, they have been given a chance to live simply because someone thinks that they deserve to. There are horses wounded and discarded from rodeos, sheep and goats who were used as bait in dog fights, bulls with whip marks and the personalities to go along with them, calves left to die because they were deemed not plump enough for veal, 1000 pound pigs that want belly rubs and tiny speckled chickens and giant turkeys so outrageously patterned that both of my sons were literally shocked at what nature can do. Well, frankly, I am shocked at what nature can do, too, and I am shocked at what humans can do. Cruelty, inhumanity, disdain, abuse, and denial of rights should not be inflicted on animals or humans, but both occur. What really shocks me, though, is that there are also people who give their lives because they want to show that animals have feelings, animals are intelligent, and animals have rights and needs: to be loved, to be safe, and to be protected when humanity says 'I don’t care.'"

Quotes are from her 2010 interview with ecorazzi and from her Why I Am Vegan" article for People for Green Justice.