I was raised Amish – but ditched strict upbringing and modest clothes to become a stripper
STIFLED by the strict rules that had her sneaking around, one woman escaped her Amish community at 17 – and has since spilled the beans on what her ultra-conservative upbringing was really like.
Born into the Swartzentruber Amish sect in rural Michigan, Naomi Swartzentruber, now 44, had to follow strict rules regarding everything – from the way she dressed to whom she could talk to.
Having now been out of the strict world for almost three decades, Naomi has detailed the hardships of growing up Amish, which also included no regular loo roll and waking up at 5am to help on the farm aged just five.
By the time she was 14, school was no longer considered a priority and instead Naomi was forced to leave her education behind to cook, clean, and do household chores full-time.
”There wasn’t much time for play – and we had to dress modestly. When I asked my parents why we had to dress and work, they said it was ‘just our way’,” she told Mail Online.
Fast-forward to now, the former Amish has spoken about what really went on behind closed doors whilst she was still living in the community – home to more than 370,000 people in the world.
As an Amish, she recently shared with LADBible, you have to follow a set of very strict rules known as Ordnung.
The guidelines regulate everything – from the way you dress to even the farming equipment the households use – and there’s punishment if you don’t abide by their way of life.
”If you are baptised and you break the rules, you get shunned – sometimes for four weeks, five or six weeks. It depends on what you did.”
To be accepted back, the rule-breakers would have to admit that what they did was wrong, before begging for forgiveness.
One of the biggest sins an Amish could make is dating an English person – a term the community uses for non-Amish people – which Naomi did when she was a teenager.
Unbeknown to her at the time, exploring her desires and sneaking out to see the boys is what eventually set her free.
The consequences of watching porn
While Naomi became a stripper to make ends meet after leaving the community, those she left behind still had to abide by the rules – which also meant no porn.
While those who got caught after being baptised would get shunned, the ramifications for those under the age of 18 were different.
If they were 18 and not baptised, and if they were already going to the singing, the teenagers would have to skip the ceremony a couple of times.
Amish singing is a cappella hymns sung in German by the Amish community during religious services and other gatherings, and they’re key for reinforcing their identity, history, and connection to their faith.
Who are the Amish and what are their beliefs?
The Amish are a group of people who follow the teachings of Jacob Ammann, a 17th century citizen from Switzerland.
It is a Protestant denomination, closely related to the Mennonites.
The Amish, most of whom live in the US, follow simple customs and refuse to take oaths, vote, or perform military service.
They shun modern technology and conveniences. Transportation for the Amish is by horses and buggy.
The man usually wear beards and trousers with buttons instead of zippers.
The women wear white head coverings and plan dresses, usually without buttons – they use straight pins to fasten the clothing.
Couples separated by a wooden board
When it comes to sex before marriage, the worshippers are very strict – it’s ”a big no-no”, Naomi said in the interview.
One of the most intriguing Amish rituals has to do with dating couples and the bedroom.
It’s the practice of ‘’bundling’’, which takes place during courtship. Ironically, it’s only the most conservative Old Order Amish communities that still do this, as per Amish Rules.
Bundling entails spending the night together, in bed but fully clothed.
Sometimes, the young lovebirds will also be separated by a wooden board in the middle of the bed.
Even a cheeky smooch isn’t allowed during this practice, but while this courtship bedroom ritual may seem counterintuitive, the Amish believe that ”bundling encourages bonding and teaches restraint”.
‘Nobody ever talked to use about sex’
Naturally, Naomi also had very little understanding of how ”babies were made”, being told that a ”stork dropped the baby in a bag down from the sky”.
”Eventually, I figured out that mum was the baby maker because her tummy would get big, and one day there was a baby and her tummy would get smaller.
”But at that point, I didn’t know how they got in there – or out – until I was older,” said Naomi, adding that sex education at school didn’t exist.
”Nobody ever talked to use about sex. I just figured it out when I would see the dogs having sex or the animals on the farm. But it’s very taboo.”
‘Natural contraception’
Traditionally, the Amish people oppose and condemn all birth control methods.
The Amish church believes contraception interferes with God’s will and natural order.
However, there is no religious doctrine about birth control, as Amish ordinances and practices can vary among Amish group, as per Amish Furniture Factory.
The household Naomi spent her first 17 years living in did ”not use contraception”.
She shared: “My youngest sister belongs to a church that’s less liberal.
“She doesn’t use modern birth control – but she takes these pills that are natural that are supposed to help you not get pregnant all the time.
”But she still has seven kids.
”So I don’t know how well they’re working,” the former Amish chuckled.
”But she thinks they work sometimes – and sometimes not.”
Cutting ties from the modern world
The ultra-conservative community also limits most technology the rest of the globe would struggle to go a day without – and in most households, TV is also off-limits.
”The strict ones, they use very little technology because they don’t want to be tied to the modern world – they try to stay separate from the modern world,” Naomi said in the bombshell interview.
Some of the limited technology that’s permitted for use include a battery-operated flashlight, generators to run the washing machine and a table saw.
I thought it was real and those people really got shot and hurt Naomi Swartzentruber
It wasn’t until Naomi was around 15 when she first watched a movie on the TV screen – at an English pal’s house, without informing her parents.
The experience, she revealed, was traumatic.
”I had nightmares, it was horrible because I thought it was real and those people really got shot and hurt – I was traumatised.”
Even years later, after Naomi had ditched her home and had found new ”people” who had taken her in, she still struggled with the concept of acting.
”We were watching a movie and there was violence – and it freaked me out and I was like, ‘I can’t watch this because those people are dying’.
”And they’re like, ‘It’s just a movie’. They had to explain to me that they were acting, that it wasn’t happening in real life.”
‘I’m definitely going to run away’
”One Saturday night I got caught when I was almost 17,” she previously told The Sun.
“I always wanted to run away, but I didn’t know where I was going to go or when.
“After I got caught sneaking out by my parents, I was like, ‘That’s it. I’m definitely going to run away.’
“I didn’t want to sneak the rest of my life to have fun.”
It wasn’t until a random weekday morning that she started to figure it out.
“One morning, I was picking strawberries and this guy that would deliver logs to my dad’s farm came to the garden when I was there picking them by myself,” she explained.
A light bulb went off in her head.
“I just blurted it out. I was like, ‘I want to run away and I want to live with you,'” she said.
At first, the man called her crazy and was worried about the wrath of her father.
“I was like, ‘I don’t care. I just need your help. Please help me,'” she added.
After Swartzentruber’s relentless pleading, he eventually said he would think about it and give her an answer in seven days.
As expected, he came back and said she could live with his sick mother who had dialysis three times a week.
“Then, it was just finding the right time but it never seemed to come,” she said.
Exactly a week later, the opportunity presented itself and she ran away with that man in July of 1997.
Naomi danced until the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic, which started her venture into content creation and a popular TikTok account.
Now, she’s a book author who lives with her long-term partner and is the mother of a baby girl.
Her memoir, The Amazing Adventures of an Amish Stripper: An Erotic Memoir, £12, details her ups and downs and is available on Amazon.
