Tabitha Brown: Vegan TikTok Star & Actress To Publish Her First Vegan Cookbook

Vegan Tiktok star Tabitha Brown, who gained popularity after featuring her plant-based recipes on social media platforms, will be releasing her first vegan cookbook along with an inspiration-filled book designed around her iconic catchphrases that will discuss her story and provide self-care tips and advice for her readers.

As part of a double-book deal, Brown is working on her first cookbook that will release after her first inspirational book Feeding the Soul (Because It’s My Business) and will be published by William Morrow and Company, an imprint of HarperCollins on September 28.

Growing up in North Carolina and now residing in Los Angeles where she pursues her passion for acting, Brown shared that she has been dealing with an undiagnosed chronic autoimmune pain for many years. This, and the fact that several of her family members have died young from cardiovascular issues, not to mention her mother was battling with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), meant that health issues and concerns plagued her life.

When her daughter requested she watch the Netflix documentary What the Health, which discusses the link between diet and disease, Brown could not ignore her own health issues an longer, with Brown saying in an interview: “The only thing I could think was, you know, the things that we all eat are the same; meat was the common denominator. I just started a plant-based diet by doing a 30-day challenge to see what would happen.”

After nearly 30 years of eating meat, Brown adopted a plant-based diet and she starting experiencing the health benefits in her daily life.

Every day I learn something new. But I always tell people that if you want to go on this journey, the first thing is knowing why: Why do you want to start it? And, really, that’s with anything in life. You need to figure out the why, and then, you take it day by day. Don’t be hard on yourself — the world is hard enough that we don’t need to be hard to compete with that

Tabitha Brown

Soon after, she sharing a video of herself eating a Whole Foods TTLA sandwich- a vegan BLT that contains tempeh bacon, tomato, lettuce, avocado- and the post went viral, begetting her a massive social media following on Facebook almost overnight. Whole Foods execs took note, hiring her as a brand ambassador, which led her to start making cooking videos on a regular basis.

When she was growing up, she didn’t have a strong passion for cooking. “When I was growing up, I was very much a tomboy. I didn’t want to be in nobody’s kitchen, I wanted to be outside. But my Grannie, she was an amazing cook: The town’s baker, really. She was always trying to get me in the kitchen, and my mother, too. I always joked and told them, you know, I don’t need to know how to cook because when I grow up, I’m gonna have a private chef. Child, I grew up and became the cook, okay?”

Then she explored TikTok, where a video of her vegan carrot bacon recipe went viral shortly after she launched her account. She is now an internet sensation with over 4.5 million fans on the short video network and another three million on Instagram, who named her the leading creator in 2020.

The 41-year-old vegan icon is continuously developing vegan versions of the Southern dishes she grew up on such as easy-to-cook meals like black-bean veggie burgers. Part of her appeal is her honesty and authenticity. In an interview with Good housekeeping, Brown says she is still learning. “Every day I learn something new. But I always tell people that if you want to go on this journey, the first thing is knowing why: Why do you want to start it? And, really, that’s with anything in life. You need to figure out the why, and then, you take it day by day. Don’t be hard on yourself — the world is hard enough that we don’t need to be hard to compete with that.”

In April of last year, Brown signed with Creative Artists Agency (CAA), a leading Hollywood’s talent agency and since then she has made guest appearances on shows such as Steve Harvey’s web series Steve on Watch and Red Table Talk on Facebook Watch, hosted by Jada Pinkett Smith and family.

In a statement, Cassie Jones, VP/executive editor at William Morrow and editorial director for William Morrow Cookbooks said: “Through her warm and personal videos, Tabitha has been a source of inspiration and happiness for millions of people. We are thrilled to have a part in spreading her positive message to the world through her books.

At the moment, Brown runs her own show called All Love on the Ellen Network and will also be joining the cast of Showtime series The Chi for its fourth season later this year.

With modern industrial livestock farming been linked to increased risk of virulent disease outbreaks, medical experts have stressed on the harmful connections that meat diets could have on humans resulting in chronic diseases that could be life-threatening. 

Scientists have also pointed out that the Paris climate agreement goals will cannot be met without a plant-based dietary shift, even if fossil fuels are banned immediately and another paper notes that massive reductions in meat and dairy consumption could remove more than a decade of emissions. 

In a recent Harvard study, researchers highlighted the fact that all our nutritional needs can be met without eating meat and only sticking to plant-based alternatives that are not only better for the environment but also conserve more protein and energy than conventional meat.

One recent large-scale study conclude a correlation between plant-based diets and gut microbes that help lower risks for heart disease, obesity and diabetes and another study, led by the National Cancer Institute in the U.S., found an ‘inverse association’ between higher consumption of plant-based foods and heart disease mortality rates.

Lead image courtesy of Tabitha Brown.