Isaias Hernandez, aka Queer Brown Vegan, shares their story and Climate Week wishlist

For NYC Climate Week 2025, Campaign Shine is highlighting Isaias Hernandez, known as Queer Brown Vegan to their 182,000+ combined followers. Hernandez, who was raised in a low-income family in Los Angeles, covers the intersectionality of climate and identity — especially for marginalized communities — with educational content. 

Inspired by PBS shows such as Bill Nye the Science Guy, Hernandez launched Teaching Climate Together, a YouTube series filmed in locations such as Joshua Tree Forest while interviewing environmental experts. He has brainstormed educational campaigns for sustainable brands including cleaning supply brand Ecos and clothing brand Faraday; and is prepping to publish their first book, Dear Environmentalist in April 2027. 

Their words have been edited for length and clarity.

Scavenging fungi, mourning peach trees

On the windowsills of my childhood Los Angeles apartment — which bordered chemical factories and a train station — my mom grew tomatoes and peppers in pots. When we left the apartment, we’d search for flowers and succulent pieces fallen off of plants to replant at home. It doesn’t cost money to pick up a plant. As a low-income family, my parents taught me the value of living things, rather than chasing plastic toys, and I found beauty in that. 

I lived in this weird dichotomy of nature being somewhere out there, but not being able to see it from where I lived. Once a month, we’d go to the outdoors — parks and lakes around LA — and I remember always feeling alive on those days, picking up fungi that my parents warned me was poisonous. But touching a mushroom will not kill you. Eating it? Maybe.

Credit: Isaias Hernandez. Used with permission.

My elderly neighbors grew peach trees, avocado trees and orange trees, and offered me fruit as I walked down the block to school. When all of my neighborhood’s fruit trees were cut down from development and people buying up homes, I told myself I’d plant my own fruit tree one day. 

The loss of the trees felt like the word “solastalgia,” which means the deep sorrow felt when your environment has been altered over the years. I’d think: “I didn’t know this neighbor passed away, but they must have, because their house was sold and now they cut down the tree. Whatever existed there is now gone.”

My environmental education started early, with my dad bringing me to his landscaping jobs on the weekends. I’d help clean leaves, pull out weeds and learned to cut trees to a height that doesn’t damage power lines. I maintained gardens outside of the one my mom grew on our windowsills. That education continued when I attended UC Berkeley for a degree in environmental science. 

Post-grad, I found myself at a Slow Factory sustainability conference that was bustling with climate creators. I was working at a NYC advertising agency at the time — my dream career in sustainability and environmental nonprofits wasn’t panning out — but someone at the conference recommended I create a social media account to post my writing on climate. That’s when I started Queer Brown Vegan.

Queer Brown Vegan: Planting free environmental education

Hernandez visiting the Mojave Desert next to Joshua Tree National Park for an episode of their YouTube series, Teaching Climate Together. Credit: Isaias Hernandez.

I first created Queer Brown Vegan as a creative project to explore topics in climate sustainability. But when I showcased my lifestyle and what I was doing to be eco-friendly such as taking the metro in New York and going zero waste, that broke me into the industry. 

My moniker stems from my goal of posting environmental education content through the lens of diversity. The environment is home to everyone, but historical systems and policies are in place to prevent certain communities’ access to clean air and clean water. 

We all have a common goal: to be treated with equality. 

When we highlight narratives such as my own with different perspectives — someone you wouldn’t traditionally think of being an environmentalist or someone trying to save the planet — we challenge our own biases and strengthen our own coalitions to create a more unified environmental movement. 

As I continue aging in this space gracefully, I want to give back to younger people who are in the same place of uncertainty I used to be in and just want someone to share their feelings with. Almost a year ago, I received an email from someone who watched my YouTube videos on environmental science. 

“I’m a 17-year-old Latina who didn’t think I was smart enough to apply to college, and then I saw someone like you in this space,” it wrote. “I wanted to let you know I got into a university studying environmental science.” The message brought me to tears. I remember being 17, not having anyone to look up to and going to school thinking, “I don’t know if I’m meant to be here.” 

But I also remember watching Bill Nye the Science Guy — I’ve since met Bill Nye in real life — and Reading Rainbow on PBS growing up, and loving how interactive and creative those shows were. I created my own web series, Teaching Climate Together, on YouTube as a way to reclaim environmental education in 30- to 40-minute episodes. 

I’ve self-funded six episodes through brand partnerships, and have explored regions such as Helsinki, Finland, the Bay Area and the Mojave Desert next to Joshua Tree. Investing in free education for teachers and organizations to use is my commitment to providing free environmental education to people. I’m [currently] working on season two.

Clean collabs, Climate Week and educational storytelling

Last year, I worked with Ecos, which sells sustainable cleaning products and [we] invested in a storytelling project called Sustainable Jobs — a spinoff of Dirty Jobs, the Discovery Channel show where Mike Rowe visits America’s dirtiest jobs. For our version, I visited Ecos’ factory, learning how they make soap and package products, and interviewing the company’s scientists and CEO.

I was so happy it wasn’t just me holding a product — it was showcasing how detergents and soaps were made, and explaining why non-toxic soaps matter. My favorite brand collaborations, specifically for brands with sustainable missions, focus on consumer education — especially for younger generations who aren’t getting their news from TV. 

At this Climate Week NYC, the investment in climate media should be discussed. We’re seeing uncertainty, devaluation and distrust toward our media and editorial industries — industries which are so important for communicating policy, science, democracy and education as we know it. We know younger generations are getting news from social media, not [from] watching TV. There needs to be active discussion on investing in that world and that industry to change the narrative.

And, in terms of the future of creator economies, how can we move the discussion of AI beyond how its developments will impact our careers and toward discussing its environmental impacts? The U.S. has almost 5,400 data centers — the highest number of data centers in the world compared to runner ups such as Germany and the U.K., which have around 500. 

Data centers require water and energy. We’re taking natural resources from certain communities and raising bills of residents who didn’t think data centers would exist in their neighborhoods — neighborhoods with kids like me who might want to forage for fungi or grow plants in their apartments. 

Getting closer to nature with hummingbirds and terrariums

Hernandez hopes to explore terrains in Latin America soon, especially because of his Mexican heritage. Image Credit: Isaias Hernandez

Today, I live in a studio in L.A., where I have a terrarium encased in glass with a 12-hour lighting system. I grow a watermelon plant — which doesn’t actually grow watermelons, but its leaves look like a watermelon — and mosses, ferns and bright pink flowers. Outside, four hummingbirds eat from hummingbird feeders I put on my balcony. That’s a connection I can give while I live in L.A.: having multiple homes not just for myself, but for the species that live here. 

I still go urban foraging like when I was younger, and a lot of my neighbors now actually have fruit and citrus trees, with so much fruit they put boxes in front of their houses for anyone to take. When I take oranges, I start peeling and eating them as I walk my dog, and later make orange juice. When I take peaches, I make sweets or bake them into pies. 

While I hope to live in a forest home one day, I’m happy to have the peach trees back for now.