Free-spirited Luna Lovegood of the Harry Potter series possesses a quiet courage: She’s a nonjudgmental, gentle soul who takes the side of the oppressed simply because it’s right.

Evanna Lynch—the Irish actress who portrays her in the movies— seems to share those traits. Through her weekly podcast, The ChickPeeps, the passionate animal advocate gently encourages her fans to try plant-based eating.

After moving to Los Angeles a little over five years ago Evanna, now aged 25, found herself often being asked “Well why aren’t you vegan?” ‘It’s so common there,’ she says. She came across the book Eating Animals around age 20/21 when everything changed. Evanna says:

‘I was so upset and horrified by what I read and found myself agreeing with vegan philosophy….[but] when I first I tried to go vegan I was angry and upset about the violence, [the diet] didn’t stick because it made me unhappy. Anything you do out of guilt is not sustainable. Eventually, it became more about celebrating veganism and life.’

The best advice she received for going vegan was to “crowd out” all the animal-based products in her diet with vegan versions, so she added things like tempeh and tofu to her meals without necessarily losing the animal-based ones right away. Gradually the animal products just fell out of her diet and she didn’t miss them as much. It made it more about the benefits of veganism.

What helped Evanna find her confidence in being vegan was getting immersed in the work of Victoria Moran of the Main Street Vegan podcast, who raves about the concept of attractivism. Evanna says the way to do it is: ‘Attract people to be vegan, to your cause, by being so vibrant, healthy and happy that people are like, “I want a piece of that” rather than being guilt-tripped or shamed into it. When you love your vegan life, people are naturally curious.’

Keep up the good work, Evanna!