Hi Everyone! I’m live-blogging the Welcome Address of Vida Vegan Con with the Vida Vegan Founders (Janessa Philemon-Kerp, Michele Truty and Jess Scone) and Special Speaker Laura Beck, founding editor of Vegansaurus! and VegNews Editor-at-Large and columnist.

Beck, who is super spunky and sassy, welcomed all the vegan bloggers, saying she was excited,

“to meet my vegan heroes and my future vegan heroes…”

She went on to share with us how she got into vegan blogging.

“I had a shitty day job that I hated…started writing reviews for Yelp in San Francisco in 2005. My voice and Yelp’s policy on swear words conflicted, they took down my posts so I started my own blog.”

Swear words?? An F-bomb-dropping lady after my own heart! With a friend, Beck launched Vegansaurus!, a vegan lifestyle guide in San Francisco.

“We started Vegansaurus and we had no idea what we were doing. Some of the early entries were pretty unreadable…I didn’t know of any vegan blogs…I found Vegan MoFo (Vegan Month of Food) and discovered hundreds of amazing vegan blogs that I didn’t even know about…

…Happy vegans, positive vegans, pissed off vegans, vegans who love PETA, vegans who hate PETA, vegans who cook from scratch, vegans who lived on flaming Cheetos it was so coll to me that there was this community and thriving…Not only did it shape my blog, it also helped me to define and solidify my own veganism…

Sometimes if I feel alone in my community, I can reach out to others with similar issues…it’s just such a great community…Vegan blogs can be there for you when you need them.”

She shared her personal story of having to put to sleep her childhood dog who she described as the most “magical being.” She was feeling down and pissed off at her blog and all blogs. But she read a comment from a person who was waffling on their veganism and said they felt so grateful from the support she received from Vegansaurus! and that rejuvenated her spirits.

“It was as if the blogging gods knew what I needed…sometimes you feel like you’re typing into the void…but it’s so much more than that. Sometimes you feel like giving up or quitting…we are awesome and we are here and we are fabulous.”

To top off the rousing opening address, a vegan breakfast bonanza of homefries, tofu scramble, fruit, biscuits & white bean gravy, sponsored by Earth Balance (LOVE them…I would die without their amazing vegan butter) awaited us.

Read all my posts on Vida Vegan Con 2011 and follow my tweets at #VidaVeganCon.