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Ella Scott
A woman who swapped her Amish upbringing for the glitz and glamour of Las Vegas strip clubs has revealed the ‘light bulb’ moment that led her to quit her traditional lifestyle.
Naomi Swartzentruber was raised in a strict Amish family in Michigan, US.
According to WRKR, there are a myriad of rules that women born and those welcomed community must follow, including wearing a bonnet in public, not posing for pictures, and not wearing makeup.
The 45-year-old, who lived in Arizona, explained that she grew up with no technology, no contact with the outside world, and no clear idea of what life was like beyond her community.
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Swartzentruber decided to up sticks, eventually becoming a stripper in Las Vegas after believing she was being stifled by the Amish people.
In an interview with LADbible Stories, the author explained how she came to the conclusion that she had to get out.
“One morning… I was picking strawberries by myself and this guy, I’ll call him Kevin, he came to buy strawberries and he was always kind of flirty.”
Swartzentruber detailed how Kevin’s appearance made a ‘light bulb’ go off in her head, adding: “And I just blurted it out. I was like, 'I want to run away and live with you'.
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After Kevin told her she could come live with him and his elderly mum, Swartzentruber detailed how she stole into her father’s desk, took her birth certificate, and took her chance to leave a week later.
With a bag that contained a T-shirt, shorts, a pair of jeans, a watch and a wallet, the woman planned to exit her family home but was soon foiled by her sister.
“When I came down, my sister was standing in the hallway, in the doorway of my room, and she was like, 'Are you running away?' And I lied. I was like, 'No, I just couldn't sleep. I had to go get a book'. And I'm holding my bag behind me, hoping she doesn't see me. I don't know how she didn't. And she was like, 'I can't let you leave. Our family will be way too upset'."
After pretending to go back to sleep, Swartzentruber recounted how she waited for the coast to be clear before dropping 12 feet to the ground and taking off running.
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Eventually, she reached a house, used the family's phone to contact Kevin, and the rest, as you say, is history.
After leaving her Amish lifestyle behind, Swartzentruber eventually ended up in Las Vegas. There, she was introduced to the life of an exotic dancer.
In the LADbible Stories interview, she remembered being ‘furious’ that she’d brought into a building that resembled a warehouse.
"We walk in, and there's a naked girl on stage, and she's looking at me and smiling, and I was like, 'Why is she doing that?' I was terrified."
Despite her initial misgivings and complaints that she was ‘too shy’ to dance on stage, Swartzentruber was in her element.
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“I walked to the pole and I grabbed a hold of it, and I just tried to move my hips like I saw the girls doing. I'm sure it wasn't very graceful, but I did the best I could. And as all this chaos is going on,
“I don't even know how I was hearing anything, but I remembered, like, I had to take my top off at the first song and then be naked on the second song. And at this point, I was, like, super shy, and still had this Amish thing of this feeling of guilt, like I can't show my body. I can't be prideful.
“And somehow I did take all of my clothes, and I was completely naked and vulnerable, but at some point in the first song, my hair fell in front of my face, and it made me feel like I had a shield, like I was invisible.”
After her first show, she said she’d earned $55 and that people were ‘clapping and saying how great [she] was.
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“It was so exciting and overwhelming and, like, this feeling that I never... a feeling of empowerment that I never experienced before in my life.”
Swartzentruber ended up having a 20-year career as an exotic dancer, but hung up her shoes for good in 2021 when she gave birth to her daughter.
The rebel later published her memoir, The Amazing Adventures of an Amish Stripper, and now publishes content on social media to share her story.