“We’re All Animals” is a story series created by Kathy Coughlin and her youngest son, Nick, for young children who are constantly formulating ideas on their place in the world. Talented vegan illustrator Ruby Roth has given form to the book’s delightful characters, through whom we learn important truths about our human connections with animal-people. The tales teach tolerance, humility, and compassion.
We are honored to present an interview with Kathy and Nick Coughlin, co-authors of “We’re All Animals,” who tell us about their journey and what inspired them to produce this wonderful story series. First, Kathy Coughlin speaks on how she became vegan and why she started advocating for the animal-people. “I think if you are vegetarian for ethical reasons, advocating for animals seems to be the logical next step.” As one of her forms of animal-people activism, Kathy Coughlin works as a humane educator.
Next, co-author Nick Coughlin tells us why he changed to a plant-based diet. “But then, when I was six years old, I decided, once and for all, that I needed to stop eating animals if I love them so much. So that’s when I became vegetarian. And I’m glad I did.” Nick speaks about when he began to realize that animal-people are like us and feel pain and emotion.
Nick Coughlin is founder of The Good Kids Project, and he recently stepped down as the director of communications and marketing to work on the project full time. He also works on other animal-people advocacy endeavors, such as the magazine “Compassionate Man.” “And when we do that, when we show that, when we can recognize that we have similar desires that other animals have, we then are more easily going to recognize them as individuals who deserve respect and consideration. And so I came up with the idea of creating a story series, using that story that my mom wrote as the starting point.” May the world’s children know only love for our animal-friends, as together we build a peaceful, vegan planet for generations to come.
