Name: Aaron
Age: 25
Location: Montville, Connecticut

Aaron, 25, plays football for the Connecticut Thunder and says that thanks to his vegetarian diet, his "energy level is up, which has allowed me to perform better in the weight room. In turn, this has made me a more explosive football player." In addition to football, Aaron loves to travel, ski, and hike.

Aaron credits his role model and wife, Bonnie, for exposing him to the cruelty that animals suffer in factory farms, which made him give up eating meat "cold turkey." Aaron and Bonnie share their home with Clyde and Cody—two pups rescued from an animal shelter where Bonnie worked—and they, too, are vegan. Aaron owns his own kettle-corn business and works part-time at a restaurant, where he loves to inform coworkers about the truth behind factory farming and the benefits of being vegetarian.

Name: Paul
Age: 39
Location: West Vancouver, British Columbia

Paul, a self-professed motorcycle maniac, has been an athlete his whole life. He has held world records in power-lifting, and he won a gold medal at a Wingsuit World Boogie. Already healthy and muscular, Paul decided to go vegetarian after seeing a fellow athlete trim down on a plant-based diet—and it worked for him too! He dropped excess weight and felt healthier.

Fitness isn't the only thing that interests the finalist who twice competed in the World's Strongest Man competition. Paul is a property manager as well as a professional musician and songwriter. He also enjoys skydiving, competitive skiing, and motorcycle racing.

Name: John
Age: 21
Location: Fond du Lac, Wisconsin

John, 21, is a former hunter who says that "in a world where you no longer need to eat meat to thrive, hunting has become archaic." One reason he decided to stop hunting and try a vegetarian diet is because of his love for nature, as raising animals for food has many negative effects on the environment. In addition to health, environmental, and cruelty concerns, John says that delicious vegetarian food is reason enough to give up meat! In fact, John says the thing he loves most about being vegetarian is the delicious food. It allows him to cook and bake with the healthiest and most delicious ingredients, and a few of his favorite cuisines—Thai and Indian—usually offer a wide variety of vegan and vegetarian options.

John looks out for animals in other ways too. During his summer breaks from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, he works for the City of Fond du Lac's Department of Construction and Maintenance. John notes that one of the highlights is being able to rescue mallard ducklings that have fallen into storm sewers and returning them to their distraught mothers.

Name: Vice
Age: 30
Location: Watkins Glen, New York

Vice lives in upstate New York, where he is finishing his graduate work in chiropractic manual medicine. He has always considered himself an animal lover, and one day a classmate asked, "If you love animals so much, why do you eat them?" The next day, Vice became a vegetarian, and he later went vegan.

The former powerlifter likes to give food ethics talks on campus and at other places in his community and encourages his friends to try a vegan diet. Vice says that he doesn't miss eating meat or dairy products at all and that he loves knowing he's not contributing to the inhumane treatment and slaughter of animals or to the destruction of the environment.

Name: Chris
Age: 29
Location: Panorama, BC, Canada

Chris, 29, was drafted into the NHL at the age of 19, but he later suffered an unfortunate injury. He says that going vegetarian around the same time as the injury has helped him recover and become a bigger, stronger, and faster athlete. Chris also says that thanks to his vegetarian diet, he rarely feels tired or sick, and he adds that "[k]nowing that I am saving animals' lives makes me feel more alive every day."

When he's not jetting off to Europe—where Chris now plays hockey for eight months out of the year—this Panorama resident enjoys sports, travel, and photography. Chris even finds time to protest circuses and help our small and large friends in need. Chris has been known to move several animals out of harm's way on busy streets, including one cow!

Name: Corey
Age: 25
Location: Brooklyn, New York

Corey, 25, attends the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in Manhattan, New York. His love for animals and his desire to live the healthiest lifestyle possible convinced Corey to give vegetarianism a try two years ago. Happy with his choice, Corey urges others to think about animals by urging his classmates not to contribute to the production of clothing that involves harm to animals.

In addition to studying, reading, running, and spending time laying the groundwork for his pilot talk show, Corey also finds time for extensive travel, including trips to Korea, Spain, Luxembourg, Dublin, Milan, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Berlin. Not only has Corey traveled worldwide, he has also lived in multiple cities and countries. His time in Columbus, Georgia, where he attended high school, certainly made an impact: He now considers fellow Georgian Andre 3000 of Outkast—PETA's Sexiest Vegetarian Celebrity in 2004—one of his role models.

Name: Matthew
Age: 23
Location: Brookline, Massachusetts

Watching PETA's video "Meet Your Meat" was enough to make Matthew, 23, commit to a vegan lifestyle. When he is not studying holistic nutrition, Matthew reposts PETA videos, participates in online advocacy, and talks to coworkers, family members, friends, and strangers about being vegetarian. He has encouraged a few coworkers to eat more vegetarian meals per week, and one is even going vegan thanks to talks with Matthew.

Delicious and healthy vegan food is important to the future restaurateur, and thanks to the help of his supportive family, finding a tasty vegan meal couldn't be easier. Matthew's Italian grandmother goes out of her way to make sure there are vegan options at holiday dinners, including chocolate cake and chocolate gnocchi.

Name: Ryan
Age: 21
Location: Laramie, Wyoming

Ryan, 21, shelves books at a local school while he is working on his degree in secondary education and social studies. Thanks to the influence of the band Fugazi, Peter Singer's book Animal Liberation, and PETA videos exposing the cruelty in factory farms, Ryan decided to extend compassion to all animals and go vegetarian five years ago.

Ryan comes from a family of hunters and ranchers, but he has encouraged some of them to go vegetarian. When he's not writing songs or academic papers about animal rights or passing out leaflets at shows, Ryan enjoys studying social sciences, listening to music, going to and playing shows, smooching his partner, painting houses, and having fun with friends.

Name: Dan
Age: 23
Location: Chicago, Illinois

Dan, 23, says that before going vegetarian, he was unaware of the horrific abuses taking place behind closed doors in factory farms, and he thought vegetarianism was nothing more that a health fad. Then he became a self-described "fast-food whore," whose diet consisted largely of food from McDonald's, Burger King, and KFC. Dan is now vegan and credits his diet for teaching him about delicious and healthy ethnic foods: "I never would have discovered Indian, Mediterranean, or Ethiopian foods when I was addicted to KFC."

In addition to sampling Chicago's vast list of vegetarian restaurants, Dan attends many demos and leafleting events for the animal rights group Mercy for Animals. Dan has created videos and music for some of the group's commercials, which have been aired on MTV, BET, and Animal Planet.

Name: Domingo
Age: 31
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada

Domingo, 31, resides in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he is a special education teacher. In his spare time, Domingo enjoys playing with his cats, working out, reading, and watching movies and going out to eat with his partner of seven years.

This first-generation Mexican-American has been a vegetarian for 10 years, and he recalls how two separate trips to farms impacted his view of animals. Regarding his visit to a farm as a child, Domingo says, "I recall the horrible conditions the chickens were kept in and the foul odor that emanated from the place." In junior high school, he took a trip to a cattle facility, where the students were shown the cruel conditions that are common for calves raised for veal. As a result, Domingo ditched meat and has never looked back. He now likes to talk about vegetarianism when people who ask how he stays in such great shape. In fact, Domingo is training for the Los Angeles Marathon and plans to try out for American Gladiators!

Name: Jonny
Age: 40
Location: Birmingham, Michigan

Jonny is a longtime vegetarian who made the transition 28 years ago. He eventually went vegan because of his love for animals (the egg and dairy industries are horribly abusive to animals) and because of the influence of his yoga and meditation practice. Jonny now runs two yoga studios and national yoga conferences, where he likes to share the benefits of being vegan by displaying pamphlets for visitors.

In addition to successfully encouraging other yogis to go vegetarian and publicly speaking about the benefits of vegetarianism, Jonny spreads his message of compassion for animals at home, where he shares an all-vegan home with his wife and children. In his spare time, the master yoga instructor and entrepreneur—who has been featured on CNN and ABC—also enjoys long walks with his wife and playing basketball and board games with his children.

Name: Benjamin
Age: 27
Location: Jersey City, New Jersey

Benjamin, 27, graduated from Yale University and Harvard Law School, but he now resides in Jersey City and practices law in New York City. He enjoys salsa dancing, oil painting, criminal-defense work, foreign films, translation, modern art, baseball, knitting, French literature, golf, yoga, dogs, and human rights advocacy. When he was in law school, Benjamin's human rights work included testifying before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights regarding a report that he co-authored on the U.N.'s failed efforts in Haiti and helping to rewrite a portion of the Cambodian Constitution. He's also a former captain of both his high school baseball (catcher) and his high school football (quarterback) teams.

When he's not busy speaking up for human rights, Benjamin is also an advocate for animals. He volunteers at animal shelters, typically by walking dogs in need of exercise and attention. He likes to tell people about the negative effects of breeding animalsand explain why people should always adopt animals instead of buying them. Benjamin says that his primary motivation for going vegetarian was environmental—namely, "the American meat industry's hugely deleterious effects on the environment," which include pollution, global warming, and a waste of natural resources. His three dogs supplied the accompanying moral conviction.

Name: Mike
Age: 25
Location: Astoria, New York

Mike has been vegan since the age of 12 and is proof that young men get all the nutrients they need to grow big and strong from a plant-based diet. He has grown to the towering height of 6 feet, 5 inches, and before a shoulder injury, he weighed close to 240 lbs. and could bench-press 325 lbs.

Before Mike went vegan, he suffered from borderline anemia, but as soon as he made the switch to an animal-free diet, his iron levels improved drastically. The super-fit NYU student maintains his health by lifting weights, playing tennis, kiteboarding, snowboarding, and more. And thanks to his workouts and his diet, Mike has the energy needed to work as a manager at the vegan restaurant, Candle 79, when he's not busy pursuing his master's in economics.

Name: Russell
Age: 39
Location: Los Angeles, California

Reading the book Skinny Bitch reminded Russell, 39, why he first tried a vegetarian diet many years ago. He first went vegetarian at a young age because of the cruelty of the meat and dairy industries, but he later went back to eating meat. After reading Skinny Bitch, he was reminded of the suffering that occurs in factory farms and decided to give a vegetarian diet another try. Now Russell is thrilled with his cruelty-free vegan lifestyle, including the health and environmental benefits!

Russell is an actor based in Los Angeles, California, who has traveled extensively to Israel, England, Scotland, Thailand, Bermuda, and Canada. His travels, martial arts practice, meditation, yoga, and compassion for animals will certainly help this Texas-raised hottie prepare for almost any role he lands.

Name: Austin
Age: 25
Location: Denver, Colorado

Austin, 25, is man enough to admit that he read Skinny Bitch—and liked it! The book recently inspired him to try a vegetarian diet, and Austin already acts like a seasoned animal rights pro. He sends e-mails to friends and family members explaining the many reasons why everyone should boycott KFC and PetSmart. Austin also encourages people to watch videos exposing the cruelty that occurs in factory farms, citing the famous Linda McCartney quote "If slaughterhouses had glass walls, we'd all be vegetarians."

In his spare time, Austin loves writing music and poetry. The Montana State University grad played soccer in college, and he plans on working in a clinic that specializes in animal physical therapy when he completes his doctorate of physical therapy.

Name: David
Age: 28
Location: Indianapolis, Indiana

David is the frontman and drummer for the band Beta Male. The multitalented musician plays guitar, bass, drums, and trombone; sings; records all the parts; and layers vocals himself. When not practicing or performing at a show, he is a part-time barista at Starbucks, where he takes the time to share the benefits of veganism. He recommends soy beverages to customers and encourages directors to add more vegan pastry offerings.

David was inspired by his wife, Allison, who is also a Sexiest Vegetarian finalist, to try a vegetarian diet. He saw a picture of a sad, desperate young pig in a factory farm and realized that he did not want to support cruelty to animals. At that moment, he decided to go vegetarian, and he later went vegan as well. He's now happy to be vegan because he's helping animals, his body, and the environment.