Millions have watched Reyes' vivacious videos, where she sings, dances and cooks up joy.
But Reyes didn't always feel joy about her relationship with food: After her father died when she was a teen, she began struggling with an eating disorder.
"I could not get a grip on how to nourish myself and how to feel the way I wanted to feel," said Reyes, who was battling"I remember I was at a precipice where I thought I could either live a life of being basic, or I could chase my dreams and be Gabrielle Reyes," she recalled. A childhood memory of visiting a vegan restaurant with her dad returned to her, and while binge-eating junk food at a college tailgate party, Reyes said she decided to change her life."Literally something spoke to me," she said."I don’t know what it was. I think it was my father or the spirit of my father or God, but something was like, 'No girl, go vegan. You don’t have to do this anymore. You don’t have to hate yourself.
Reyes said she knew nothing about cooking vegan food, but leaned on the Haitian, Puerto Rican and soul-food recipes her parents cooked when she was growing up and began putting a vegan spin on them. "Food has four elements: a carb, a meaty, a fresh and a creamy element," she said."Everything you love to eat has those elements, so I started creating meals every day and feeding my friends."
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