Chris Paul, Lewis Hamilton, and Justin Fields Among PETA’s 20 ‘Beautiful Vegans’ in Honor’s 20th Year

For Immediate Release:
July 22, 2021

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

To celebrate how much the vegan movement has grown in 20 years since the inaugural contest in 2001, PETA is ushering in a new wave of compassionate icons and naming 20 stars the Most Beautiful Vegan Celebrities of 2021, including Chris Paul of the Phoenix Suns, Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields, Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton, Phoenix Mercury star Diana Taurasi, and rock-climbing prodigy Ashima Shiraishi.

“Vegan options are now on every menu and in every grocery store, and you can’t go to a basketball or football game these days without spotting a vegan champion,” says PETA Senior Vice President Lisa Lange. “We’ve come so far in 20 years, and that’s thanks in large part to PETA’s ‘beautiful vegan celebrities,’ who have inspired millions of people to leave animals off their plates.”

Nine-time NBA All-Star Paul credits his vegan diet with allowing him to keep up with teammates nearly half his age, while Taurasi, the all-time leading scorer in WNBA history, went vegan alongside her wife and former teammate, Penny Taylor, and says the switch improved her athletic performance and stamina. Hamilton regularly urges his millions of followers to stop the “horrific atrocity” of killing animals for food, and after NFL up-and-comer Fields followed his dad’s lead and went vegan, he said, “I feel great, my body feels great and I feel faster and stronger.” And Shiraishi says she went vegan “cuz I love animals” and immediately felt “incredible health benefits.”

This year’s other honorees include activist Colin Kaepernick; musicians Lenny Kravitz, Billie Eilish, Lizzo, Anderson .Paak, and Chloe x Halle; director Ava DuVernay; and actors Madelaine Petsch and Sadie Sink.

Outspoken animal rights activists like Joaquin Phoenix, James Cromwell, RZA, Pamela Anderson, Edie Falco, Natalie Portman, Woody Harrelson, and Alicia Silverstone have led the way for years, pointing out that meat, eggs, and dairy cause immense suffering and that animal agriculture is one of the leading sources of greenhouse-gas emissions. According to the United Nations, a global shift toward a vegan diet is vital if we are to combat the worst effects of climate change.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.