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<\/p>\nA woman who grew up Amish has revealed the biggest culture shocks she faced once she fled the strict community. <\/p>\n
Lizzie Ens, from Ohio, was raised alongside 18 siblings in a traditional Amish household with no running water or electricity. As a member of the religious community, she had to follow strict rules, which included never cutting her hair and sewing her own clothes. <\/p>\n
But after spending her life feeling like she never truly belonged, Lizzie ran away from home at the age of 19 to start a new life outside the Amish community. Now 38 and working as a nutrition coach, her life looks totally different and she hasn't spoken to her family in years. <\/p>\n
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For more real life stories, click here. <\/b><\/p>\n
She also regularly opens up about what life is like in the Amish community on TikTok, where she has amassed more than 300,000 followers, and recently admitted adjusting to the outside world wasn't easy. In a viral post that has now been viewed more than 7.5million times, Lizzie revealed some "fun facts" about the things she didn't know when she left the Amish community. <\/p>\n
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The first thing she revealed was that after living off the grid for so long she hadn't been aware she'd need to get a Social Security Number, a nine-digit number issued to US citizens for identification and tax purposes. <\/p>\n
Unlike the vast majority of Americans, Lizzie also revealed she'd been completely oblivious to what a shopping mall was. She recalled: "I remember the first time that a friend of mine said 'Hey we're gonna go to the mall this weekend' and I was like 'What's a mall?' So they explained it to me and one of the first times I went to a mall I got lost because I was not used to that."<\/p>\n
Her understanding of global geography was also wrong because of her education in the Amish community. She explained: "Another thing, when I was growing up we were always told that China was below us so it was like under the ground and they lived below us and I was like 'How is that even possible?' And then I learned that that's not true."<\/p>\n
China wasn't the only place she'd been wrong about, she added: "I also learned that New York City is not in another country, it felt like it was in another country but it wasn't." As the Amish community rarely venture out to restaurants, Lizzie revealed she found ordering food while eating out a "totally foreign" concept and would often use the wrong words for different foods.<\/p>\n
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But she said one of the biggest culture shocks both she and other people who've left the Amish community face is finding out "you can't outrun law enforcement". She explained that Amish children learn how to "manipulate and get away with things" and would often lie to their parents about breaking rules like having cameras or listening to music.<\/p>\n
But she revealed the habit can get a lot of former Amish members into trouble in the outside world. She said: "Well a lot of kids after they leave, they kind of view law enforcement the same as the preachers and some of them end up in not such happy places because they get caught and they realize, 'Oh I can't just lie my way out of whatever trouble I'm in.'<\/p>\n
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"So there are some people that end up in jail because there's a lot that we don't know when we leave and the culture shock is real." Lizzie has now lived just as much of her life outside the Amish community as she did in it but admits she's still always learning new things.<\/p>\n
But while she used to be ashamed that she would get confused by pop culture references, Lizzie said Google is now her "best friend" and she's no longer embarrassed by her upbringing. <\/p>\n
She said: "I was embarrassed that I didn't know certain things and then one day I was like 'You know what, I can't help how I grew up, I can't help what I knew when I was growing up'. I was sheltered for 19 years of my life, that's when my life really started, after I left, and I had to learn a lot of things so now I don't feel bad anymore.<\/p>\n
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