Motherhood
Dog Mom: Laura Miller Of Raw, Vegan, Not Gross
Written by Katie Hintz-Zambrano
Photography by Photographed by Nicki Sebastian
May 17, 2016
Naturally, we love moms here at Mother. But, honestly, we really just love women. Which is why we don’t want to limit our content to only profiling those with children. There are too many incredible not-yet-moms, might-never-be-moms out there that we’d like to turn our readers onto from time to time.
Which brings us to our first “Dog Mom” feature on funny lady/chef/author/internet personality Laura Miller. The creator of #froobs (look it up) and the “Raw, Vegan, Not Gross” movement (plus a brand-spankin’-new cookbook of the same name!), the L.A.-based talent has amassed a cult following on both Instagram and YouTube thanks to her super relatable and body-positive approach to food and life.
Here, she invites us into the Silverlake home that she shares with her music producer husband, Ricky Reed, and 10-year-old dog, Buzz (an Akita-Pitbull mix), and talks internet superstardom, mom icons, style, grub, high fiber dog food and more.
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- "We actually bought the house from another musician whom my husband had toured with a couple years before! We've now been here for about a year. It's my favorite place." Laura wears a Camille Walala x Gorman jumpsuit.
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- "He loves laying in the sun in our backyard, a luxury we never had before moving here. It's such a huge improvement from the days when he and I were shuffling around in S.F. sublets. I think we even spent a night or two in my car together."
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- "In our back room we have two hilariously oversized couches that barely fit in the space and don't allow for any other furniture. From a design perspective, it's kind of horrendous (a little bit of a Pee-wee's Playhouse vibe), but it's the best room to hang in! It looks ridiculous, but the back faces west, so at sunset the sun beams through the windowed doors and colors the entire room a glowing orange. It's the best!"
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- Kissy face.
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- "Lots of light, lots of plants, and lots of us."
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- "Slow and steady. We hardly have any artwork up and some rooms are barely furnished because we wanted to wait for stuff that we really love. We still don't have chairs at our dining table!"
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- "We really only have two pieces of art—the 'Love You Friend' print by DeeDee Cheriel and a large piece by my woodworker artist friend Aleksandra Zee. My favorite piece of furniture is our giant couch—we wanted something that people could sink into and stay for a while."
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- "I got Buzz well before I should have! I was barely paying my bills and living in a tiny apartment, and here I was adopting a 90-pound dog. Buzz helped me grow up and start taking better care of both of us. He's a strong, smart dog so he needs a lot of exercise, boundaries, and stability to stay healthy and happy. Turns out, I do better when I have all those things, too!"
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- "I adopted Buzz from the Oakland SPCA about 8 years ago. They thought he was between 1-2 years old, an 'adolescent who would need boundaries.' He already had the name, so I wasn't about to change it. It reminded be of the big brother from Home Alone! He's probably about 10-years-old now. But I can't be sure, since I got him as a fully grown man!"
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- "We party pretty hard with him in our backyard, but when we go out, we love taking him to Griffith Park and on walks around Silverlake Reservoir."
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- "That's still TBD. For now it's just Buzz!"
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- "My own mom. If you met her, you'd never imagine that I came out of her. She's petite and poised and graceful, I'm not any of those things! But she emphasized kindness and empathy as important values. I can actually remember conversations with her about it when I was little! It's pretty incredible now seeing my sisters raise their own daughters in the same way, and I hope that if I ever do have kids, I'd be able to do the same." Laura wears one of her Froobs t-shirts and Madewell jeans.
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- "I am a raw food maker, cooking show host, and now cookbook author apparently!"
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- "This is all a bit of a mess, but I'll try to consolidate! I grew up in Northern California, my family lived out in the country where all our neighbors had small farms and my sisters and I got a lot of poison oak. I went to college thinking I wanted to be a Russian history professor, but afterward found out I was really interested in food. I took a series of hilarious jobs to pay the bills (server, park ranger, gas station attendant, bad web designer, etc.) but kept returning to food. I started a small food business in San Francisco called Sidesaddle Kitchen, which transitioned me into doing recipe videos for the Tastemade channel a couple years later."
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- "A lot of people don't know that I got into doing recipe videos by accident! I'd had a one-woman raw food dessert business in S.F. where I sold at farmers markets, and a videographer happened to do a video profile of me talking about my business. The video ended up making its way to Tastemade, where my show Raw. Vegan. Not Gross. started. The name had been the tagline of my business in S.F.!"
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- "Only when my friends make fun of me for it."
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- "It's chock-full of recipes that I love, but it's also got a lot of funny stories about my journey through the (sometimes cult-y) world of raw veganism."
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- "I actually started the tagline 'Raw. Vegan. Not Gross.' for my business because I knew a lot of people may have tried raw food, but hadn't necessarily tried good raw food. It ended up becoming the name of my show and now my cookbook, I think because it gets right to the heart of it—people think raw vegan food is going to be gross. I get that. I've had gross raw food, too."
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- "Getting emails from people who've been affected by my work in a positive way."
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- "I really wish I had a good answer for this! For me, it's about doing the work on a day-to-day basis and trying to make the best decisions I can. The next project always seems to reveal itself!"
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- "I want to facilitate real conversations about our relationships with our bodies, and to help women and girls feel healthy and strong."
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- "We walk Buzz every morning to get coffee together, that way, even if the day gets away from either of us, we've at least gotten a chance to catch up for 30 minutes or so. When we can, we go on sunset walks with Buzz and a flask of Cazadores. Recently, we've also become super conscious of having mini celebrations when something positive happens in either of our careers. It's a way of not letting the good stuff get swallowed by the noise of stress, problems, and generally being overworked!"
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- "We have a local Mexican restaurant that we love and go to way too often, and if I'm being completely honest, we've been doing a lot of Postmates. L.A. has so many great vegan places and we are both insanely busy right now!"
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- "The people. We have a great community of hard working, creative people that are always down to get together. We will often put out the bat signal and have about 20 people over within a couple of hours. Note: This is not doable if you're concerned about people seeing your half-finished projects and laundry piles. I am beyond shame about that at this point, though."
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- "I'm either working from home or from my shared studio in Downtown L.A. Buzz is with me either way, which is good because I'm forced to break up my day by getting outside to give him a walk around the block."
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- "The Raven Spa for when I've run my body into the ground!" Laura's homemade wedding-day necklace.
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- "Big hair and lipstick on teeth." Laura wears a Yumi Kim jumpsuit and vintage boots.
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- "I wear jumpsuits a lot. I like them because I can really move around in them, which is good because I always end up on the floor for some reason—it's where all the dogs and babies are!"
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- "I love bright colors and patterns. I'm currently a big fan of the prints from Mister Zimi! I'm a full fledged Maxxinista (TJ Maxx) and also look for pre-owned stuff on apps like Poshmark or Tradesy. I'm not one of those people who doesn't like used clothing! For basics I'm all about Asos."
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- "I'm actually currently doing a series on my blog testing out natural beauty products. So, I'm mixing it up a bit right now, but I always do dry-brushing before showering, then moisturize my body with almond oil after. I've just started using this Kate Somerville ExfoliKate mask—it's expensive but the bottle lasts forever and it really works. I also just discovered Little Barn Apothecary. It has this Coconut + Mint face mist that is unlike anything I've ever tried, and I'm big on face mists— I've been known to pull one of out my purse to spritz strangers at sweltering outdoor summer weddings!"
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- "I go through phases based on what I have time for and what I feel like my body and mind are needing at the time. When I was writing the cookbook and spending too much time alone, I'd make sure to take group barre or pilates classes just to make sure I saw other humans every day! On the other hand, if I'm going through something that I need to work through emotionally, I might have a phase of lots of long-distance running. It really depends."
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- "I never make resolutions, but I always try to do stuff that scares me. Right now that means taking dance classes. Annnnd releasing a cookbook."
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Laura –
I think you are amazing, funny, and beautiful. I am interested in living a healthy lifestyle and I believe you can help people who are struggling with health and disease. I have acute pancreatitis and feel better if I eat healthy. It is hard and too easy to eat bad. It would be amazing to see if you could help others, maybe even a show that shows the power of vegan/raw foods.
Thanks for your time,
Mike Budka
208-713-1750