Kendra Bates spent nearly a decade building a life in Los Angeles, working as a dancer and creating OnlyFans content online. From the outside, it looked like momentum. From the inside, she says it felt hollow.
And in a new chat with People, she revealed that this disconnect ultimately led her to one of the most unexpected pivots imaginable: leaving modern city life to live in an Amish community.
Bates is part of the cast of Suddenly Amish, a new reality series that debuted January 13 on TLC. The show follows six non-Amish participants who are invited into a closed Amish settlement after a local bishop agrees to welcome outsiders in hopes of growing the community.
The decision came during what Bates describes as a crossroads moment. She said she was already questioning whether her career choices reflected who she had become after reconnecting with her Christian faith.
“I don’t necessarily align anymore with being a dancer,” she explained. “I really have to be picky with which jobs I morally feel comfortable doing, and that’s none.”
That internal shift also included her past work on OnlyFans. In an emotional confessional shown early in the series, Bates said she joined the platform during what she called her “lowest point,” before her baptism.
She acknowledged that period came from insecurity rather than empowerment and said forgiving herself hasn’t been easy.
When she came across casting for Suddenly Amish, the timing felt deliberate. “This could be the out that I was looking for,” she said, describing the opportunity as a chance to step away from a life that no longer felt sustainable.
Bates also pointed to her growing frustration with Los Angeles culture. After nine years in the city, she said the environment had begun to wear on her. “Everybody is so, ‘Me, me, me — what can you do for me?’ And that bothers me to no end,” she said. “I’m just not happy currently where I’m at in life.”
Despite the drastic change, Amish life isn’t entirely foreign to her. Bates comes from a Mennonite background and says the experience felt like reconnecting with something her family once lived. “For me, this experience was kind of a way for me to see what my family was doing in those generations,” she said.