There is a girl named Sarah Joy Nelson on TikTok. Her account @@thatplaingirl has more than 500,000 followers.
(Sarah Joy Nelson)
Sarah is from West Virginia, USA, and claims to be a Mennonite, a sect of believers known as the Amish.
If you often watch American TV series/comics, you should be familiar with the Amish. To put it simply, this group of people reject technology, live a simple and simple life, and do not have much contact with the outside world, so they appear quite mysterious .
(Common Amish attire)
Sarah only opened a TikTok account at the end of last year - obviously, this is against Amish teachings,
However, it is probably because of her "deviant" that she quickly gained popularity. In more than two months, she has more than 500,000 fans...
But this is not entirely because of her Amish identity. Sarah has a very lovable personality and she wears a The traditional costumes of the Mish people are cheerful and generous, and full of friendliness.
(Sarah is wearing Amish clothing)
She will share her experiences of life as an Amish girl, such as sewing her own clothes, cooking home-cooked meals, working in a Mennonite-owned store, and the Amish community that exists issues, her past struggles with mental illness, etc.
However, due to some reasons, Sarah has now deleted all the original videos. We can only see clues of her style from the videos saved by individual netizens:
"I was in a 'general store' (referring to the Amish store) 'Working, so it's natural that I'll hand you candies because they're cute."
(video saved by netizen)
"I work in a 'normal store', so it's natural that after you mention a certain star. , I will deliberately act confused and unfamiliar, and you will never know if I am joking."
(Video saved by netizen)
"I work in a 'general store', so it's natural to check out at you. I'll sing and tell stories to your kids."
(Video saved by netizen)
"I work in a 'general store', so naturally, if you dye your hair/have tattoos/piercings, I'll stare at you. ——It’s not because I don’t like you, it’s because I want it too.”
(Video saved by netizen)
In short, it can be seen that Sarah is a very positive and humorous girl, which is completely inconsistent with the world’s view of Amish. It’s easy to understand people’s old-fashioned impression that fans can grow quickly.
However, on March 26 this year, Sarah suddenly posted a farewell video, saying that she would no longer update tiktok.
The video is titled: "I apologize if I have offended anyone by violating our community guidelines."
She said in the video that she would delete all content from her account:
"This is me The last tiktok video recorded while still in the community. "
" It's been a pleasure meeting all of you and I'm grateful for the opportunity to talk about (our) community. "
' I wish you all the best. ’
(Screenshot of video title)
Fans were shocked to find Sarah’s behavior in the farewell video was very strange.
Her expression was stiff, she swallowed nervously, and sometimes glanced out of the camera, which was somewhat different from the calm and composed state in previous videos.
These unnatural features have alarmed Sarah’s fans.
- "Well, I'm very worried now."
- "She looked scared. I hope she's okay and didn't get caught."
- "She looked to the side and there was another person standing there. She was obviously Very scared.”
- “Sarah Joy, I’ll pick you up now.”
(Sarah behaved unnaturally in the farewell video)
Netizens also speculated wildly about the reason why Sarah stopped updating.
speculates that there are two main directions. The first direction is that the Amish elders put pressure on her and forced her to stop updating.
Despite how relaxed Sarah appears to be, the Amish actually have to abide by strict gender roles and a patriarchal church system.
They attach great importance to the community. Each community has its own regulations, and even the regulations in the same community and different streets are different.
(Amish life, schematic diagram)
In the eyes of ordinary people, the Amish lifestyle appears very conservative.
So some people speculate that Sarah was forced to stop updating by the male leaders in the sect. They did not want her to reveal too much about Amish life.
Furthermore, there has been an ongoing issue of sexual assault and domestic abuse in the Amish community, which Sarah talked about candidly in the video.
Her fans were worried that the community wanted to "cover" Sarah's mouth, so they forced her to stop updating.
(Sarah)
Netizens’ second guess is that she fabricated the facts and is simply a liar.
Two girls revealed some things about Sarah to "Rolling Stone" magazine.
They claimed to be classmates in home school with Sarah and her sister and have known each other since childhood.
They said that Sarah had deceived people before, and said that she had Tourette Syndrome, but she did not.
They also showed reporters the photos of the two of them with Sarah in the past few years. In the photos, Sarah lived the life of an ordinary American girl, going to the mall, bowling, putting on makeup, wearing fashionable clothes, and taking selfies with filters on Snapchat.
The girl named Alyssa among the two said that at a wedding in 2020, she had seen Sarah wearing fashionable clothes.
Before she became famous for playing tiktok at the end of 2023, Sarah did say that she had converted to Mennoniteism and tried to live an Amish life, but later she gave up.
"She kept doing this for a few weeks and then she went back to her old self."
(Sarah)
Another girl asked to remain anonymous, fearing she would be alienated by Sarah's family.
She confirmed that Sarah did work at a local Mennonite-owned store, or grocery store.
"That's true, because there are no other jobs out there."
She thinks it may have been the store job that inspired her to "call herself Amish."
"I'm not sure if she was asked to wear traditional clothes or if she just wanted to fit in."
The anonymous girl had hesitated to ask Sarah if she was Mennonite, but she told Sarah We have a good relationship with the family, and I was afraid that this would make Sarah uncomfortable, so I never asked. After
saw Sarah's farewell video, she and her friends were very worried, so they decided to break the news.
To summarize what the two classmates said, they felt that Sarah’s Amish identity might be fake when she created a persona on TikTok.
(Sarah is wearing traditional Amish clothing)
However, there is currently no guarantee that the two girls’ revelations are 100% true. Fans and netizens hold two completely different views on their words. Supporters of
believe that the words of the two girls revealed that Sarah lived the life of an ordinary American girl before 2020, and then converted to Mennonite and changed her lifestyle. They agree with this view.
But the problem is that the Amish lifestyle is not easy today. There are very few converts now. It is hard to say whether Sarah has really converted.
Opponents, meanwhile, refused to believe that Sarah had ever converted to Mennoniteism.
They turned into detectives and looked for clues from her past videos.
For example, in the video, Sarah lives in a relatively modern house;
Sarah’s father is a Pentecostal pastor, and the church has nothing to do with the Mennonites. Netizens found Sarah on Facebook last year. Picture of spending Halloween at my dad’s church, which is not usually celebrated by the Amish.
Some netizens found another TikTok account that Sarah used before she became famous. This account was active from June to December 2022, but there is no sign that she is a Mennonite.
In this account, she shared a photo of opening a Christmas gift as a child. The gift was a cabbage patch doll, and the Amish generally do not buy commercial toys and products.
Regarding the question of whether Sally created a persona online, two of her classmates felt that it might be because she had psychological problems that allowed her to play a completely different role from herself online.
“I think it has to do with her not knowing what to do and where to go, she just wants to fit in somewhere.”
“Of course people in the community are very welcoming on social media and I feel like she only feels supported there. .”
(Sarah)
Seeing that everything is said on the Internet, not long after posting the farewell video, Sarah returned to TikTok and posted a clarifying video to explain her current situation.
She said that she is not a "hostage" and that she now has the choice to stay in the Amish community or leave to pursue a life outside.
She had previously said that she wanted to leave the community to continue her studies, and she also had other ideals, but she said she still decided to stay.
At the same time, she hit back at an anonymous netizen in the video, who called her a "liar."
The explanation given by Sarah is that she changed her lifestyle in 2018 or 2019.
(Sarah’s Clarification Video)
This video doesn’t exactly put things to rest. After the release of
's farewell video, many fans have contacted the law enforcement agencies where Sarah's home is located, asking them to verify Sarah's health and see if she is okay.
The local Sheriff's Office said they have received a large number of calls asking about Sarah's condition and they are investigating.
's only way to contact her was through the post office. They tried calling the post office, but it was closed. It's unclear if they have been able to contact Sarah.
Is Sarah being threatened, or can’t continue to set up, or just simply doesn’t want to play tiktok anymore?
can’t draw a conclusion yet, and netizens are not convinced.
Before contacting Sarah herself, it is estimated that Let the bullets fly for a while longer...
Source: Those Things in the UK
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