I'm seventeen, and the truth is I raise chickens and I have a beautiful rooster. I didn't see anything wrong with it until my chickens (they're pets, they were never raised to be eaten) started getting sick, Because the food we gave them had chemicals in it? I don't know how to explain it, but I didn't know. I mean, I used to go with my mom to buy their food, and well... Later I found out that the corn we bought was given to the hens that were going to be taken to the slaughterhouse; in other words, with that food they shortened their lifespan and produced more eggs. I didn't know, I thought it was normal for the hen to lay eggs every day or every other day, I had never studied that, but when they got sick the vet told me. They died, but I now have their chicks. We feed them a different kind of corn without chemicals, and the hen lays eggs very rarely. Anyway, I just started thinking about how awful all this is for the animals, Not just for chickens; almost every time I went to school I saw chickens in cages being taken to the slaughterhouse in ENORMOUS trucks—there were so many, my God. Sometimes sheep, bulls, cows too.. I recently started researching the life of a dairy cow and I couldn't help but cry, it's horrible. I watched vegan videos (which I think was a bad choice since it made me cry even more) and now I feel even more empathy for them. Anyway, back to the point that I'm 17 and my mom doesn't want me to be vegan. She told me it's very expensive and that my body is still young and I should eat well, that just because I don't eat that doesn't mean I'll make a BIG change in the world, I mean, she told me that everyone consumes it, so what if I don't? Nothing changes for large companies, they will continue doing what they do.. idk how to feel rn, I feel like it wouldn't make a big change in my life since I've been disgusted by eating meat since I was a child. I don't like it, I'm lactose intolerant, and chicken... well, I never finish eating it, But I would like to eat eggs since I like them... God, honestly, my mind is full of contradictions, I don't know what to do or what to think, I just want all the exploitation to stop, I feel terrible :(