Hi, my name is Nathalie Etienne and I am a Caribbean-American vegan based in NYC. My vegan journey started during my sophomore year of college in 2012 when I started taking some time out to learn how I could possibly improve my well-being. I wasn't suffering from any illness but I was trying to figure out how I could integrate natural preventative care practices into my daily life. A lot of the information I received were from well studied naturopathic healers, such as Dr. Phil Valentine and Sister Queen Afua.

After coming into the general realization that food is medicine and food can be healing. I decided that it was time to make a change. I was no longer going to consume meat, dairy, or any other animal products. After about six months I bounced back for a bit and went pescatarian, then vegetarian, until I finally went full on vegan again in the spring of 2014. Ever since then, I never looked back!

I started to fall in love with taking the time to prepare healthy delicious WHOLE foods, so much so that I started to blog about it! I created an Instagram page called @DOOSENYC where I feature Caribbean inspired vegan foods and desserts.Taken from the French and Creole word, "douce", which means, "sweet". I wanted to prove to my friends, family and anyone else who is watching that you can still enjoy good cooking and good baking while staying on a plant-based diet. I hope to continue reinventing traditional recipes in hopes of making my vegan experience that much sweeter. Thanks for allowing me to share my story!