Living with the Amish

15 September 2011

The notoriously private Amish community opens its doors to a group of British teenagers in a new six-part series.

Living with the Amish follows six British teenagers leaving their mobile phones, Facebook accounts and partying behind, as they head to Ohio to see if they can hack six weeks of hard work and simple living.

The British teens, from a range of backgrounds and with a range of typical teenage issues to work through, live with six different families among the local Amish community. They swap their iPhones for hymn books. Out go their modern clothing, in favour of faded dungarees and conservative Amish hats. And their Xboxes and PlayStations are replaced by traditional pastimes such as blanket-stitching and making wooden toys.

The experience is a radical departure from the way teens live their lives in contemporary Britain, and requires a readjustment to a world of gas lamps, horses and carts, manual labour and daily communal hymn-singing. Will the experience help them find God? Or, just as importantly, discover who they really are as individuals?

No Amish community has ever before offered to carry out an ‘Amish detox' such as this. The Amish families who are taking part in the series hope that it will reveal the advantages of a pure, uncluttered way of life.

Charlotte, 18, loves clothes and shopping, and never leaves the house without her make-up on. At home, she's not expected to help with household chores and enjoys her mum bringing her cups of tea 'on tap'. But Charlotte thinks there's more to life than what you wear and wants to see if the Amish experience will help her gain confidence and independence.

Also headed for the US are Eton College student George, 17, who wants to see what life is like in an insular community, largely hidden from the outside world; and Cambridge University undergraduate Siana, 19, who lives with her single mother, younger brother and sister on a London council estate. Siana's family came from Sierra Leone when she was a toddler. She wants to learn more about the Amish viewpoint and their reasons for wanting to keep their traditions alive.

Joining them are 17-year-old Christian Hannah, who wants to see if meeting such a devoutly religious group will cement her faith - or make her question it. Media studies student Jordan wants to know what it'll be like without social media and music to occupy him 24/7.

Seventeen-year-old James also loves listening to music and spends much of his day playing computer games. Since spending the last few years of his life in foster care, James now lives alone in a hostel in London. He says he never eats fresh fruit or vegetables and prefers take-aways: something unheard of to the Amish, who grow or catch all their own food.

Now the teens swap their iPhones, clothes, jewellery and diets for the Amish way of life. The first family they stay with are Jonathan and Marietta in Middlefield, Ohio, home to 14,000 Amish folk. Jonathan and Marietta want to show the teens how rich their lives are, despite their lack of worldly possessions. They believe that the Amish way of life has something to teach everyone, and there is so much more to being Amish than just horse-drawn buggies, beards and barn raising.

Production company
Keo Films