Leaving the Amish community to live in the outside world has to be a major shock. Overnight, one has to go from a world powered by horses and buggies to one ruled by technology.
Lizzie Ens, 36, left the Swartzentruber Amish community at 19 and has done a great job transitioning to a completely different lifestyle. She was able to get her high school diploma, become a certified health coach and founded Undiet Yourself.
She’s also become an influencer on TikTok with over 183,000 followers.
In a recent video, she looked back to her Amish past and revealed the “3 biggest things that shock people” about her Amish life.
Her parents had 19 kids
“My parents have 19 kids, and within those 19 kids are three sets of twins and I’m a twin,” she revealed. “But not only that, my mom birthed all of these kids naturally.”
She had no social security number
“When I left, I had to go apply for a social security number and let’s not forget I had $20 to my name when I left,” Lizzie revealed.
She’s trilingual
“We are bilingual. Actually, we are trilingual,” Lizzie said. “Our first language is Pennsylvania Dutch, and then we learn German and English when we went to school.”
The Pennsylvania Dutch language is a Germanic dialect predominantly spoken by Amish and Mennonite communities, especially in Pennsylvania. Despite the name, it has no connection to the Dutch language. The term “Dutch” derives from “Deutsch,” denoting “German.” The dialect came to North America in the 17th and 18th centuries.
