Recently, a girl named Ruby Steed posted a video on TikTok with the theme of "Talking to yourself as a child", which accidentally caught fire.
Supposedly, this kind of video idea is not too new, but she still gets more than 3.2 million views and 480,000 likes.
That's because her experience as a child was so unusual:
She used to live in a cult, and her father was the leader of the cult....
To talk about this, we must first say a little bit about history.
In 1930, a group of Mormons were ostracized by the "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" and decided to establish a portal to establish the "Latter-day Saints Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ (FLDS)".
As for the reason for the exclusion, it is simple: they refuse to give up polygamy....
In short, FLDS is an officially certified cult in the United States.
Fast forward to 2002, the "prophet" of the FLDS, Rulon Jeffs, died, leaving behind more than 20 wives and more than 60 children.
Of the more than 60 children, Warren Jeffs stood out and took the "prophet" seat from his father as a new generation of cult leaders.
(Father and son photo)
Warren also lived up to his father's high expectations, and in the six years of being a "prophet", he practiced brainwashing and psychological manipulation to the fullest, abducting many women to be wives at home, including minors.
In 2008, U.S. police received a report that they raided the FLDS site and arrested Warren, by which time he had 78 wives, 24 of whom were minors...
And that's not all, the police later launched an investigation into more than four hundred children who frequented his church and found evidence of a large number of sexual and physical and psychological abuses.
Three years after his arrest, Warren received the punishment he deserved: life imprisonment.
The breadth of the case and the gravity of the plot shocked the whole United States, and it was later adapted into a documentary by Netflix.
When he entered, a large group of wives and children were liberated, and Ruby was one of them.
Ruby was just ten years old when Warren was arrested, yet Warren still strictly practices a brainwashing policy for such a young child, and he once told her:
You don't have the right to choose your future husband, you don't have the right to choose what work to do, you don't allow you to connect with the outside world...
Thanks to the efforts of the police, Ruby escaped the clutches of the cult, but it was not too late.
Now 24 years old, she has escaped Warren's influence and is living a wonderful life: she has an ideal job, often travels the world, has many friends,
It's a bit ironic that thanks to Warren, she has a lot of biological siblings who care about her...
In that viral conversation video,
As a child, she asked, "Do we still dress like this?" ”
Growing up, she replied, "No." We changed into brand new clothes. ”
When she was a child, she said, "So are we still intimate with our mother?" ”
Growing up, she said, "We are best friends. ”
"Then shall we still go to church?"
"Not going. Everything he teaches you is a lie. ”
"So we left (FLDS)?"
"Yes, and that was the best decision we've ever made."
"Have we ever been to cool places?"
"Been there too much! You'll travel a lot later and move to Australia for a year! ”
"I also hiked five hundred miles through an entire state!"
"So do we have a career?"
"Yes! We went to school and later became hairdressers, which was really great! ”
"We meet a lot of cool people and travel a lot."
"What about our younger siblings?" Do you still have them? ”
"Sort of.... But now it's different. ”
"Better now."
"We're like best friends."
"So have we made friends?"
"Handed in! Many, many more! ”
"We hug."
"We celebrate."
"Let's go camping."
In her, it was difficult to see the trace of the little girl who had once been deeply trapped in the cult. Instead, she appears optimistic, positive, and doesn't seem to be influenced by the past, trying to carve out her life.
In the comments, netizens are encouraged by her attitude to life:
"I get goosebumps to watch! I'm so happy for you. ”
"So proud of you! Very brave story. I hope that your future life will continue to be exciting. ”
It is worth mentioning that this video is too hot and also leads to an unexpected reunion:
"Ruby! I don't know if you remember me, we went to girls' summer camp together! You came out and I'm so happy for you! So proud of you! ”
Ruby replied, "My God, it's you Kristen!" Of course I remember you! I was still adjusting to the 'normal world', thank you for being so good to me! Hope everything goes well for you. ”
It seems that when she first came to the "normal world", she still adapted to it for a while...
I hope that her future life will also go well...