Trigger warning: This article contains details of sexual abuse that might be disturbing to some.
A woman, raised in a strict Amish community with a labyrinth of rules, led a life of abuse and addiction for many years before finally turning her life around.
After leaving behind her community at the age of 17, Naomi Swartzentruber said she was taken advantage of, sexually abused, “pimped out,” worked as a sex worker, and grew massively addicted to drugs before life finally took a turn for the better.
Naomi Swartzentruber had an Amish upbringing that was defined by strict rules and isolation
Image credits: amishinspiration
Born into the Swartzentruber Amish, a group known for its stringent adherence to traditional Amish values, Naomi Swartzentruber remembers her childhood as one defined by strict rules and isolation. From the ankle-length dresses and bonnets that covered her hair to the prohibition against modern conveniences like electricity and indoor plumbing, Naomi's world was full of extreme conservatism.
“[The Amish] have very, very strict rules,” Naomi told Shelise Ann Sola on the podcast Cults To Consciousness, as reported by the Daily Mail. “We have to wear long dresses down to our ankles, and we have to wear a bonnet that covers our hair. It's super strict.”
“There were a lot of times when I didn't understand why we couldn't do certain things, like why I could only go to town once a year,” she added. “But that's just how it was.”
Naomi's upbringing was all about rules, right from the clothes she could wear to the places she could be
Image credits: amishinspiration
Naomi said she was “pretty content being Amish” because that’s the only world she knew. But things changed when she was 13 and had a non-Amish neighbor move in.
“She really opened my eyes to the outside world,” Naomi said. “Before that, I was pretty content being Amish because that's all I knew. But once I got a little taste of freedom I just wanted to kind of go wild.”
With time, Naomi began sneaking off to places she was not meant to be in and recalled sneaking out one night as a teenager and losing her virginity to a non-Amish boy. By the age of 17, she decided she was ready to escape from her community.
“I really wanted to leave. Finally, I was like, whatever, if I go to hell, I'll just go to hell,” she recalled. “I didn't know when or how or where I was going at that point, but I knew I had to leave.”
After hearing tales about the outside world, Naomi grew eager to leave her community behind and get a taste of what she was missing out on
Image credits: amishinspiration
Naomi managed to convince a man about double her age, who would deliver logs to her father’s sawmill at the time, to take her with him. The man with a wife of his own agreed but ended up abusing her after taking her to live at his sick mother’s house.
In addition to helping take care of the mother, Naomi also continued her “sexual relationship” with the man because she felt “powerless” and didn’t know how to “say no to him.” The man even got Naomi to sleep with his neighbor.
“I didn't know what prostitution was at that point. I just thought his friend was being nice and giving me $20 for a blow job,” Naomi said on the podcast. “He was definitely grooming me, but I had no idea what that was because I wasn't educated about sex or anything like that.”
Naomi found a man double her age to help her escape her community, but he eventually used her for sex and "pimped" her out
Image credits: amishinspiration
Determined to break away from the man’s clutches, Naomi decided to get a job but didn’t have too many options because she only had an education up to the eighth grade under her belt.
She eventually became a stripper and dancer, which eventually helped her turn her life around.
“[Stripping] was very freeing and empowering for me,” Naomi told the host. “I was able to express myself.”
“I felt so powerful and amazing when I stepped on the stage. I was the most shy little girl growing up, but something came alive inside of me on stage,” she added. “It opened my eyes and my mind to many things that I had no idea existed before.”
After being a stripper, getting addicted to drugs, and having an abusive relationship, life began to change for Naomi
Image credits: amishinspiration
Having an income allowed Naomi to enroll in college and rent her own apartment. However, she once again hit another low point in her life after ending up with the “wrong crowd” and developing a drug addiction.
“I stopped going to work. I dropped out of college, and that became my life,” she told Shelise. “ … It was very difficult, and I lost everything. And I started selling myself to support myself.”
After another abusive relationship and some fresh perspective years later, Naomi decided to change her life completely and gave up being a stripper for good. She went back to college and got her medical assistant and X-ray technician license.
Naomi went on to work at a doctor’s office and met a friend named Will at the time.
“'There was nothing sexual about it [at first]. I didn't even think he was my type,” she said. “I was just so happy to just have such an amazing friend in my life finally, someone that was nice to me. It was wonderful.”
Naomi shared her story with Shelise Ann Sola on the podcast Cults To Consciousness
Image credits: Cults to Consciousness
Naomi’s relationship with Will bloomed, and they fell in love before becoming parents to a baby girl in 2021. She also went on to narrate her story in her 2023 memoir, The Amazing Adventures Of An Amish Stripper.
"I always felt like there was a light at the end," she concluded. "Throughout all these dark days, I always had hope that I would someday find the freedom that I was searching for and have the peace that I [longed for]," she said.
"I never gave up. I always had hope. I always tried to make the most out of every situation."
“I just hope that my story can inspire and give hope to others. There can always be light if you choose to see it and you always have a choice to change your life at any time that you want to,” she added. “You can make your life the way you want it to be, you just have to choose to do the right things. If I can do it, anyone can do it.”
Some people online were glad that Naomi's story of a rough life had a happy ending
