A woman who grew up in an Amish community with 18 siblings revealed how she didn't cut her hair or take a shower for 19 years.
Lizzie Ens, 38, grew up in a strict Amish community surrounded by her brothers and sisters but always felt she “didn’t belong”.
She didn’t have any electricity, running water and had to sew all her own clothes and wasn’t allowed to cut her hair.
Lizzie left aged 19 when her boyfriend at the time, from another Amish community, escaped himself and helped her do the same.
She left with just $20 and got a job as a dishwasher so she could integrate into modern society.
Her life is now "completely different" and she finds looking back on her lifestyle growing up "crazy".
Lizzie, a functional nutrition practitioner, from Phoenix, Arizona, said: “We had no electricity and no running water.
“We didn’t have showers.
“I had never cut my hair before I left – that was surreal.
“I knew from a young ages that I wasn’t going to be there by entire life.
“I knew I didn’t belong.”
Lizzie is one of three sets of twins in her family of 19 children – the eldest now 47 and the youngest aged 25.
She said: “We had sibling rivalry – in general we were close.
“Every morning for breakfast you cooked enough for 20 people.
“You are cooking for an army three times a day.”
From aged five Lizzie would do house chores, cleaning and milk the cows.
She said: “We are taught how to work hard from a young age.
“We grew all our own fruit and vegetables and had animals for meat.”
Lizzie said her community was very strict – and controlled what she wore.
She said: “We had to sew our own dresses and they had to go down to our ankles.
“All our hair had to be covered and couldn’t be cut.”
They didn’t have bathrooms and instead had to go to outbuildings to use the toilet and used newspaper or magazines instead of toilet paper.
Lizzie said: "We didn't have indoor plumbing so we didn't have showers.
"I didn't have a shower until after I left."
As a teenager, Lizzie started to question the rules of her community.
She said: “From my young teenage years I put my attention on things going on in the outside world.
“I questioned a lot.
“The men came up with the rules and the women had to follow them.
“I could not get on board with the hierarchy.”
Lizzie had been dating a boy from another Amish community when she received a letter from him saying he had escaped.
He told her he could pick her up that night along the road if she wanted to leave too.
She went to bed and left a note before climbing onto the roof and jumping off to her freedom.
Lizzie said: “I sat on the roof contemplating how I’m going to jump off.
“I was jumping off to my freedom and destiny.
“I landed and ran.”
Lizzie managed to connect with an ex-Amish couple who let her stay with them and helped her get a social security number so she could get a job.
Lizzie had $20 which she used to get her first set of clothes and a haircut.
She said: “I cut my hair out of rebellion.
“It was a massive culture shock.
“You have to unlearn things.
“That deconstructing of what you did all your life doesn’t just go away.”
Lizzie decided to “embrace” her journey and got a job as a dishwasher before becoming a personal trainer and then transitioning into holistic health and starting a coaching business.
Three of Lizzie’s siblings have also left but she hasn't spoken to most of her family in years, she says.
She said she doesn’t “hang onto” her past.
Lizzie said: “I embrace my life.
“My life is so vastly different.
“I look back and go that’s crazy.”
Lizzie Ens, 38, grew up in a strict Amish community surrounded by her brothers and sisters but always felt she “didn’t belong”.
She didn’t have any electricity, running water and had to sew all her own clothes and wasn’t allowed to cut her hair.
Lizzie left aged 19 when her boyfriend at the time, from another Amish community, escaped himself and helped her do the same.
She left with just $20 and got a job as a dishwasher so she could integrate into modern society.
Her life is now "completely different" and she finds looking back on her lifestyle growing up "crazy".
Lizzie, a functional nutrition practitioner, from Phoenix, Arizona, said: “We had no electricity and no running water.
“We didn’t have showers.
“I had never cut my hair before I left – that was surreal.
“I knew from a young ages that I wasn’t going to be there by entire life.
“I knew I didn’t belong.”
Lizzie is one of three sets of twins in her family of 19 children – the eldest now 47 and the youngest aged 25.
She said: “We had sibling rivalry – in general we were close.
“Every morning for breakfast you cooked enough for 20 people.
“You are cooking for an army three times a day.”
From aged five Lizzie would do house chores, cleaning and milk the cows.
She said: “We are taught how to work hard from a young age.
“We grew all our own fruit and vegetables and had animals for meat.”
Lizzie said her community was very strict – and controlled what she wore.
She said: “We had to sew our own dresses and they had to go down to our ankles.
“All our hair had to be covered and couldn’t be cut.”
They didn’t have bathrooms and instead had to go to outbuildings to use the toilet and used newspaper or magazines instead of toilet paper.
Lizzie said: "We didn't have indoor plumbing so we didn't have showers.
"I didn't have a shower until after I left."
As a teenager, Lizzie started to question the rules of her community.
She said: “From my young teenage years I put my attention on things going on in the outside world.
“I questioned a lot.
“The men came up with the rules and the women had to follow them.
“I could not get on board with the hierarchy.”
Lizzie had been dating a boy from another Amish community when she received a letter from him saying he had escaped.
He told her he could pick her up that night along the road if she wanted to leave too.
She went to bed and left a note before climbing onto the roof and jumping off to her freedom.
Lizzie said: “I sat on the roof contemplating how I’m going to jump off.
“I was jumping off to my freedom and destiny.
“I landed and ran.”
Lizzie managed to connect with an ex-Amish couple who let her stay with them and helped her get a social security number so she could get a job.
Lizzie had $20 which she used to get her first set of clothes and a haircut.
She said: “I cut my hair out of rebellion.
“It was a massive culture shock.
“You have to unlearn things.
“That deconstructing of what you did all your life doesn’t just go away.”
Lizzie decided to “embrace” her journey and got a job as a dishwasher before becoming a personal trainer and then transitioning into holistic health and starting a coaching business.
Three of Lizzie’s siblings have also left but she hasn't spoken to most of her family in years, she says.
She said she doesn’t “hang onto” her past.
Lizzie said: “I embrace my life.
“My life is so vastly different.
“I look back and go that’s crazy.”
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FunTranscript
00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 So there are three things that always surprises people
00:14 when I tell them about my Amish community.
00:16 The first one of the three is the fact that
00:21 my parents have 19 kids.
00:24 And within those 19 kids are three sets of twins,
00:29 and I'm a twin.
00:31 But not only that, my mom birthed
00:34 all of these kids naturally.
00:37 The second one is the fact that
00:40 we did not have social security numbers.
00:42 So when I left, I had to go apply
00:45 for a social security number.
00:47 And let's not forget that I had $20 to my name when I left.
00:51 The third one is that we are bilingual.
00:55 Actually, we are trilingual.
00:57 Our first language is Pennsylvania Dutch.
00:59 And then we learned German and English
01:04 when we went to school.
01:05 But the biggest thing to remember here is that
01:09 there's a major difference between all the orders.
01:13 And where I grew up was the most strict form
01:16 of Amish community that you can grow up in.
01:18 So this area that I'm walking around in
01:22 is much more modernized.
01:23 For example, this flower plant right here,
01:28 we weren't even allowed to have flowers like that.
01:30 So big difference.
01:31 How was it having so many siblings?
01:35 Amazing.
01:37 Okay, so there's pros and cons to it, obviously.
01:41 But I have many, many good memories
01:44 of having that many siblings.
01:47 And obviously, there's gonna be times that we fought.
01:51 Yes, we did fight and we did argue.
01:53 And sometimes, some of the siblings would create
01:56 kind of like a little pack where it was like,
02:00 I got your back, you got my back.
02:02 And they would kind of gang up against another sibling
02:07 if they were not part of it.
02:09 So I was actually one of those kids that was a troublemaker.
02:14 And a lot of times, I got blamed for things
02:19 that weren't actually my fault.
02:22 But because I pushed the lines and broke the rules,
02:27 I got in trouble for a lot of things.
02:32 But it did teach me a lot of things, too.
02:36 It taught me how to get smarter with what I was doing.