A woman who grew up in one of America’s most conservative Amish communities has revealed the shocking rules she had to live by until she fled at the age of 19.
Lizzie Ens lived with her parents and 18 siblings on the extremely austere 80-acre Swartzentruber Amish farm in Ohio.
Ens, now 38, has shared details of her early years with before entering what she calls the “modern world” after breaking out of isolated and challenging traditionalism.
After adjusting to her newfound freedom, Ens built a successful beauty business and helped others as a wellness coach.
During her strict upbringing, showering was not allowed, shaving was forbidden, haircuts were not allowed, and brushing teeth was not a daily activity. At the age of 17, she lost all of her upper teeth and had to have dentures put in her mouth.
“There was no electricity, no indoor plumbing, no running water and an outbuilding that served as a toilet where weekly baths were taken in a shared stainless steel tub of water,” she revealed.
“We weren’t allowed to shave, so we had hair under our arms and on our legs.” “We weren’t allowed to use deodorant under our armpits and newspaper was used as toilet paper.”
Lizzie Ens was 19 when she fled her extremely strict Amish lifestyle in 2004. She said photos and videos are prohibited. The photo was taken by an Amish friend who had left the community. She said no one in her family had ever seen it
Ens, now 38, is a successful health and wellness coach and co-founder of a beauty company she launched in October
The dress code was strict: head coverings, long-sleeved dresses held together with pins instead of buttons and zippers, and bras were not allowed; women wore underwear instead.
Although there are numerous Amish sects, some of which are not as strict, she explained that her sect is the “strictest.”
“There was no internet.” No electronics. No photos. No video. No television. Nothing from the outside world,” she told .
Ens revealed that she and her twin once tried to escape, but returned two days later because her sister felt too guilty about leaving her Amish life behind.
But two years later, on June 30, 2004, the day Ens made her brave escape. She climbed to the roof of her three-story house, took off her hood, let down her long hair and jumped 15 feet down.
“I took a leap into my freedom,” she said. “I was scared, excited and relieved.
“I was scared because I didn’t know if I would ever see my family again.” “Relieved because for the first time in my life I had the ability to follow my heart and my dreams.”
When she gave up the only life she had ever known, Ens had only $20 in her pocket and in a moment left her family, including her twin sister, who she said she didn’t want to leave.
Two days after her escape, she told that she had gotten a job as a dishwasher at a local restaurant.
She said the people who hired her had a “massive influence” on her transition from Amish culture to the modern world.
They were not Amish and helped her with the support and resources she needed to get a Social Security card, driver’s license and car.
“They taught me how to drive.” I was terrified the first time I got behind the wheel, but within a few weeks of passing my driving test I was able to drive on my own. “It was crazy,” said Ens, who used to drive a horse and carriage.
But as she did her best to adjust to the world she thought she belonged in, “there was a huge culture shock,” Ens says.
“You have no idea how little you know about the world until you realize how little you know,” she said. “Then the shock starts to take effect”
Ens spoke at an event last year and shared her journey. At the start of the presentation, she wore traditional Amish clothing (pictured), but underneath she wore a stylish dress that shows the transition
One of the first things she had to learn was how to get a job and hold down a regular job so she could pay her bills.
“It was incredibly strange,” she said. “I’ve never earned my own money and haven’t had to pay rent or bills.”
She also had to get a Social Security number — a completely unfamiliar concept — but even the little things were overwhelming, including a task as simple as turning on a light switch.
“Wow, that’s amazing,” she recalled. “I don’t have to light a kerosene lamp.”
She can still remember the feeling of getting in the shower for the first time, which she described as “exhilarating” once she was out.
But over time, Ens slowly adapted to her new lifestyle, including beauty treatments and self-care, which are now part of her everyday life.
“I was told my whole life that it was a sin to cut my hair,” said Ens, who described her hair as waist-length.
“When I went to the salon and got my hair cut, it felt like I was shedding the old version of myself.”
Shaving was another dramatic change, she explains. “Shaving was one of the first things I did when I left.” “I didn’t know what I was doing when I first bought a razor and it was painful and took at least two hours.”
The Amish life made them extremely “self-sufficient,” something they say the modern world “craves.”
Shopping for simple clothes – jeans and a t-shirt, even underwear – changed my life.
“I bought my first outfit at Walmart. As an Amish woman, I wasn’t allowed to wear bras, so that was super exciting for me.”
She added: “Putting on my first pair of jeans was so surreal. “I had never worn trousers in my life. I felt like I was in a new body and a new world.’
It took some getting used to eating out, ordering from the menu and trying a whole new selection of food.
“We grew our own fruits and vegetables, raised our own animals and milked our own cows.” “Most of our food was homemade and eating out was not an option for us or something we did,” she said.
She described her first visit to a Chinese restaurant as an interesting experience.
“I looked at all the food and thought nothing looked good,” she remembers. “So I just ate the fruit.”
Based on her experience, she believes that women in the Amish culture have difficulty reaching their potential.
“I came from a very oppressed background and really needed to be taught and mentored by others about how to have a voice, which is one of the reasons I’m here today,” she said.
She added: “But I have the utmost respect for the way I was raised and what I learned from it that made me the person I am today.”
Looking back, Ens is convinced that she made the right decision.
‘I regret nothing. If I were still there, I wouldn’t be able to make the impact my business has on my customers and the world.”
Today, she said, she has a good relationship with her mother and keeps in touch with three other siblings who also left, but doesn’t speak to the others who stayed.
She told that her twin, who she hadn’t spoken to in years, had finally married and was expecting to give birth to her 11th child any day.
“If I had stayed, I probably would have gotten married and ended up having lots of children, just like my twin sister – which was one of the main reasons I didn’t want to stay there,” she said.
She founded Miss Commando, a business for women by women, something she could never achieve if she had stayed in her Amish life
Ens worked hard to become a health and wellness coach, channeling all the good things she learned from her Amish upbringing to launch a career – something she wouldn’t have been able to achieve if she had stayed.
Last year she gave a speech sharing her personal journey. She wore traditional Amish clothing, but surprised the audience when she removed her modest clothing and revealed a stylish “modern” outfit underneath to show the transition.
In contrast to her twin, Ens is a single mother of a five-year-old son. Earlier this year, she and her husband divorced after ten years of marriage, which was also not common in her previous life.
These days, she’s busy running a business and raising her son while living her best life in Phoenix, Arizona, far from the isolation and shelter she once knew.
In October, she founded a woman-owned business called Miss Commando, which sells eco-friendly beauty soaps and lotions made from goat’s milk.
To continue her mission of sustainability, she partnered with Michael Coleman, a distant relative of the Coleman Camping Family.
Their collaboration, she explained, is to create a movement to help utilize hemp fiber as a solution in the outdoor industry.
Their goat-based products and packaging are stored in biodegradable, non-toxic hemp plastic containers.