Naomi Sue Kramer, age 18

Jamesport, MO

I live with my parents. This year in September it's their twenty-fifth anniversary. My mom came from a family of fourteen. There are seven kids in our family, I'm third. There's two brothers older than me... the one that's twenty-one, he drives a truck and he's not Amish any more... He's just always been kind of a rebellious kid. He used to drink a lot, but he doesn't any more, but he's still not Amish... I know my mom, well, we all pray for him, you know, that he will come back.

I think sometimes I'm ready to have a boyfriend. I have a crush on someone... but he's not Amish anymore, and I know he doesn't want to be Amish, so I don't know where that's gonna end.

I have friends that aren't Amish any more, and if I hang out with them and then come back to being at home all week, sometimes I get kind of confused 'n stuff.

There's a lot of rules in the Amish culture. Like our dress, and we believe in our modesty, We believe, and go to church. We don't have electricity or cars, or anything like that. We drive the horse and buggies.

My parents don't know, but I have a little television. We have to run it by batteries. It's really a pain because you have to first carry a big battery up–I mean these are heavy–and then hook it up to an inverter and then we watch movies with that.

I finished school when I was thirteen. That's usually the normal age. After that we just work at home until we're a little older, then usually we get jobs. I do kind of miss learning.

No, we don't vote. Amish don't vote. We believe in keeping away from the world, the Amish. See, so, no I don't really believe I could make a big impact on the world, but I do believe I can be a light to the world by living the way we do.

Marjorie Lynn Kramer, age 17

Jamesport, MO

Being Amish is really important to me. I guess because I always grew up like this, and my parents taught me to live a simple life, and live it for Jesus. I hope to be Amish for the rest of my life. I'm gonna marry an Amish boy and have a family.

I really think it would be awesome to have a boyfriend. The Amish can't date 'til they're seventeen, so a week from now I'll be able to start dating, go to the movies and stuff. From seventeen to whenever you're ready to join the Church, we go hang out and do some stuff like that. They call it "Rumspringer." It means "running around."

I use the telephone probably every day. We have an outdoor phone. It's a little ways down the field in an old shed. Because we don't believe in having electricity and a phone in the house. That would be too much like the world, I guess...

There's times, you know, when people mock us because we're Amish, we're different. There's times we're driving along the road with our horse and buggy, people will yell mean stuff at us.

I think there's more in life than money. I think if I have enough money to get me through, then I think that's great... I spend [my money] on dress material, shoes. When me and my friends go out, we go eat, go out to movies, or go to amusement parks.

The best thing I like about myself is my sense of humor. I'm kind of shy and insecure, so that's the worst about myself.