About

Up Close & Personal

To read more about how and why I went vegan, check out the about section of my vegan food blog. Here are a few more things about me (“fun facts” if you will) that are unrelated to veganism:

• I was born in West Berlin, two years before the wall fell. My dad was one of the people who rushed to the wall that day, hammer in hand, and joined the crowds in tearing it down. I still have one of the pieces of the wall that he took with him that day.
• My parents were both avid travelers all throughout their late teens and twenties. My dad would work as a waiter at night and on weekends while in school full-time so that he could spend months at a time hitch hiking and riding his bicycle through the U.S., Sri Lanka, and all of Europe. It’s during one of those trips that he met my mother (who was an au pair in London). They became penpals for years before eventually moving in together.
• They always encouraged me doing the same. I worked in hotels in a few different countries (including Egypt, Italy, and France) for a couple of years before starting college and have continued traveling and moving every few years since.
• I can neither whistle nor snap my fingers!
• I adopted a rescue dog in December 2023 and named her Leila (after the song “Leila et les Chasseurs” by Francis Cabrel). I was inspired to adopt after meeting some of my friends’ rescues (especially my friend Joanne’s dog Lulu) and after seeing another friend, Tedi, foster over 23 dogs over the years. Even though it was so much harder than I expected at first, I now can’t imagine my life without Leila.
• I’m obsessed with languages and before starting my vegan business, the plan was to continue going to school in order to one day become a professor. I studied at university for six years before moving to New York to focus on my online business and writing cookbooks full time. After many years, I’ve recently decided to go back to grad school part-time in order to continue both of these passions.
• I have ADHD. I didn’t get diagnosed until I was in my thirties, but once I did, my whole life suddenly started making A LOT more sense.
• I left New York City during the pandemic and now live in Ghent, Belgium. Luckily, I still get to go back to New York and Los Angeles regularly.
• I’m an introvert (INFP for those who are familiar with the MBTI personality test) and can spend endless time alone (which isn’t always good for me!)
• I’m a Gemini sun, Leo moon, and Scorpio rising (if that means anything to you!).
• My mother, grandmother, great-grandmother (and all generations before that) were all born in the Congo. It’s a long and complex story that I’m hoping to tell in a book one day!
• My first name is Kim-Julie and for the first 10 years of my life, that’s what teachers and almost everyone else called me. When I switched schools in 5th grade, someone forgot the hyphen when enrolling me and I was too shy to correct them, so it just became Kim for many years. I started going by Kim-Julie again when I started my online business in 2013. I prefer people calling me Kim-Julie (Kim or KJ are OK too), but hate being called just Julie (the best way I can describe is this: imagine your name is Amanda and people start randomly calling you “Da”).