The Stunning Transformation Of Moriah Plath
Ever since TLC's "Welcome to Plathville" exploded onto screens back in 2019, fans have been fascinated with the Plath family. The series, which introduced viewers to Kim and Barry Plath and their nine kids, showcases the Christian fundamentalist family's way of life on a farm in Georgia. For many, keeping kids away from everything from soda to television to the internet can seem pretty extreme. As far as Kim and Barry are concerned, these limitations are important. However, not all of the couple's children have chosen to stay aligned with their rules. If there is one Plath kid who is considered the "rebel" of the bunch, it's Moriah Plath.
In the debut season, viewers learned that Kim and Barry are not exactly on board with the idea of their kids going to college; frat parties and the like don't really match their values. Moriah, who was homeschooled, still hoped she could give college the old college try. "I might at some point just want a little bit of space for a little bit of time. And I also need lots of freedom," she said.
Though Moriah didn't end up going to college, she has branched out in other ways — often to the chagrin of Kim and Barry. This Plath kid has come a long way since she first appeared on camera, moving away from her hometown to strike out on her own. Even though she's been in the public eye for a relatively short period of time, Moriah's transformation since Season 1 has been nothing short of jaw-dropping.
Moriah Plath lost all her hair as a child
Although fans may not have had the opportunity to watch Moriah Plath go from small youngster to creative teen on the show, "Welcome to Plathville" has given viewers some insight into what life was like for the tot. Turns out, it wasn't always so easy. In a 2023 episode of the hit TLC reality series, Moriah had a candid heart-to-heart with her dad, Barry Plath, where she detailed an illness she suffered from as a toddler.
Moriah told the audience that when she was a young kid, she had a rare form of alopecia. "When I was a little girl, when I was 3 years old, I lost all my hair for several years completely, not even eyebrows or eyelashes," she said before going on to tell her dad about the emotional toll it took on her. "I would look at myself in the mirror and I would say, 'You are ugly. Nobody will ever love you.'" If this heartbreaking information wasn't enough, Moriah revealed that other children used to mock her — and so did her siblings.
Thankfully, Moriah's hair did return, but the experience left a lasting impact on her. She instructed the rest of her family members to never talk about the period and banned them from showing photographs from that time to anyone. For his part, Barry admitted they were all helpless, and that he was sorry other kids were so mean to his daughter.
She lived a very sheltered childhood along with her eight siblings
Growing up under the watchful eye of strict parents Kim and Barry Plath meant that Moriah Plath and her siblings were expected to act in a certain way. Of course, "Welcome to Plathville" is a reality TV show, and oftentimes, producers amp up the content to make things seem more extreme than they actually are. After all, Moriah and her sisters were often filmed wearing makeup like regular teen girls, so were they really as cloistered as the show made them out to be? According to Moriah's brother Micah Plath, the answer is a firm yes.
When Micah posted a snap from behind the scenes of the show to his Instagram back in 2019, one fan asked, "Do you feel as though a whole new world has been opened for you? Were you and your siblings really as sheltered from the outside world as all of us perceive?" Micah said they were indeed extremely sheltered, and that the show was accurate in its depiction of Plath life. With that being said, it's hardly surprising that Moriah, then a young teenage girl, would be curious to see and experience more of the world.
The first season of the show in particular showed what life was like for the kids on the Plath farm, with Moriah having her first taste of cotton candy while on an outing with sister-in-law Olivia Plath.
Moriah Plath left home in 2020 because she was desperate for freedom
When viewers were first introduced to Moriah Plath, she seemed to fit right in with the rest of the family. However, at the start of "Welcome to Plathville" Season 2, Moriah and Micah Plath announced they had moved out of the Plath family home and found their own rental place. Moriah decided to leave once and for all after clashing with her parents, Barry and Kim Plath. (Evidently, Micah left on less dramatic terms.)
"In the last six months so much has changed. I moved out of the house slash got kicked out," Moriah shared in the season premiere. She went on to give examples of her parents' controlling rules, noting that she couldn't even wear jeans, tank tops, or swimsuits. "I felt like an outsider in the real world. I didn't feel normal." This telling phrase shows just how desperate for freedom Moriah really was, and when she got out from underneath her parents' watchful gaze, she began to experiment more with her personal style.
In September 2021, Moriah posted the above photo of herself on Instagram rocking shorter bright purple hair and wearing a cheetah print bathing suit. It probably didn't please Barry or Kim, but something tells us Moriah didn't care.
Moriah Plath got her first of many tattoos
One of the biggest things that Moriah Plath struggled with when living under Kim and Barry Plath's roof? The rigid limitations and strict guidelines. As we previously mentioned, this extended to being unable to express herself with things like clothes and makeup. For a young woman, this is a pretty big deal. It's hardly surprising that Moriah decided to get inked when she began to get a little more freedom from her parents. Her first tattoo was the phrase "black heart" on her wrist.
The reality star has built up quite the tattoo collection since then. In an Instagram snap from 2023, Moriah can be seen sporting several big pieces, including two roses on her collarbone, some script on her left arm, and what appears to be a bird. The year prior, Moriah also posted a video to her YouTube channel showing her getting a large realistic rose tattoo on her hip.
In the caption to the video, Moriah told her followers that even though some might say they won't age well, it's not something she's worried about: "I have 3 tattoos and have never once regretted them! I could go on forever but I don't have to explain myself ... do what makes you happy, there is only one you!" This artistic mode of self-expression marked one of the biggest changes in Moriah's aesthetic to date.
She took a big leap when she moved to Tampa with her brother
Over the next couple of years, life developed at a fast pace for Moriah Plath. The "Welcome to Plathville" star was in a relationship with Max Kallschmidt. She started sporting a bolder, glam look — complete with her tattoos, of course. Gone was the doe-eyed, natural blonde, and here was a social media influencer, with brightly colored hair, lush eyelashes, and a noticeably fuller pout. Oh, and she totally changed her location.
During Season 4 of the show, Moriah made the decision to up sticks and move to Tampa, Florida, to live with her brother, Ethan Plath, and his wife, Olivia Plath. The close-knit trio had been attached at the hip for a while, with Olivia and Moriah having bonded over their opposition to some of Kim and Barry Plath's parenting choices. Deciding to move far away from her family must still have been a daunting thought, but Moriah clearly wanted to experience the world.
Sadly, something went wrong in the process, and the living situation didn't last, with Ethan telling producers on the show that Moriah abruptly moved out while he was away on a trip. "There was a note on the counter ... she's finally moving out and going to be on her own for the first time," he said.
She had her heart broken in 2021 when she split from boyfriend Max Kallschmidt
Out of all of the siblings on "Welcome to Plathville" Moriah Plath has become a fan favorite. Her adventurous, bold spirit is endearing, so when she went on her first date back in Season 2 of the show, it was almost as exciting for viewers as it was for Moriah. Though it took a little while to get their relationship off the ground, when Max Kallscmidt became Moriah's official boyfriend, it looked like their romance was built to last.
That's not to say they didn't have their issues, though, such as Kallschmidt expressing concern about Moriah's "revealing" outfits in one scene. Regardless, Kallschmidt gave Moriah a promise ring and the two appeared to be set to start a new life together in Tampa alongside Olivia and Micah Plath. However, Kallschmidt ended up not moving in; the relationship fell apart when he cheated on Moriah in 2021. In 2022, Moriah spilled the beans on their breakup during the show, telling producers that it devastated her. (That same year, Barry and Kim Plath announced their own split.)
Visibly upset by the line of questioning about her former relationship, Moriah took a pause before she said, "Max called me one night and said he made a mistake ... I'm not going to go into details. Since then, I've been in a dark place." In the episode, Moriah could be seen pouring her pain into her music.
Moriah Plath found her voice and released her first single in 2022
Music has long been a part of the Plath family's world. Years before "Welcome to Plathville" came about, Kim and Barry Plath and their nine kids went on tour, playing churches, festivals, and senior centers. A quick scan of the family's self-titled YouTube channel shows numerous videos of Kim and Barry performing with their kids, singing songs like "The Old Rugged Cross" at church. Though Moriah Plath might have been keen to leave some elements of her life living in the household behind, she has maintained and nurtured her love of music over the past few years.
In 2022, she released her debut single, "Missed Myself." Her sweet but confident voice won fans over, and Moriah appeared to be matching her aesthetic to her new, singer-songwriter vibe. She ditched the brightly-colored hair in favor of a bright blond, often sticking with a bold lip and big lashes as pictured above. As for the song, many fans thought the lyrics were telling us something about her relationship with Max Kallschmidt and how the break-up made her feel.
In the song, she sings, "Like heavy chains pulling me / I let you get the best of me / But that won't mean / You can control who I'll be." The then-19-year-old kept quiet about the subject matter of the song, instead reveling in her musical debut. Many fans took to the comments section of Moriah's Instagram posts to praise her, with one telling her, "Your single means so much to me!"
In summer 2022, she graduated from bartending school
Of all the careers Kim and Barry Plath envisioned for their kids, bartending probably wasn't high up on their list. After all, rowdy things happen in busy bars, and that's exactly the kind of thing that the Plaths wanted to protect their children from. At the tail end of 2022, Moriah Plath proved yet again that she's not afraid to follow her own path when she shared a video of herself on Instagram making an espresso martini.
In the caption, the then 20-year-old told her followers that she graduated from Elite Bartending School the previous July, praising the course for giving her the confidence to learn a new skill. Moriah explained, "I remember the first class I took I had never actually been in an environment where I'm learning along with many other people and I was a tiny bit nervous ... But by the second day, it had become my comfort zone!" She went on to say that she had been able to bartend at different events thanks to Elite, and highly recommended it to others.
You have to be pretty self-assured to be a bartender, as it often means keeping a cool head in a very fast-paced environment. Moriah looks beyond happy behind the bar, leaving little doubt that she's grown into a secure, confident woman who's able to hold her ground.
She was baptized for a second time in 2023
As part of her desire for freedom and getting away from her parents' strict rules, Moriah Plath never felt that she carried the same certainty of faith as Kim and Barry Plath and some of her siblings. Given the way she seemed to go to great lengths to shed her fundamentalist upbringing as a young adult, it came as a massive shock to fans when she shared a video of herself to Instagram getting baptized by her father in an idyllic lake in 2023.
In the caption, Moriah explained that while she had spent a long time searching for freedom and forging her own path, she was ready for another big change. "It was hard to love myself without being able to accept that I am loved! ... I accepted Jesus as my savior and gave my life to him." Of course, producers captured the moment Moriah told her father she wanted to get baptized on camera, with Barry seemingly elated that his daughter had embraced their faith.
While it's Moriah's decision to do what she feels is best, some fans took to the comments to express concern that Moriah was undoing some of her hard-earned progress. One said, "You got free, got scared, and ran back to your bubble. You are in denial. Seek therapy."
In 2023, she announced another new single
By the tail end of 2023, Moriah Plath seemed to be on the up and up. She had returned to her faith on her own terms, and her relationship with her family seemed to be better as a result. What's more, she'd put a great deal of energy into her music career. In December 2023, Barry and Kim Plath's daughter posted the single art for her new single, "Circus." In the image, she stands at the entrance of a circus tent in a flowing white dress.
By early 2024, Moriah shared multiple images of herself singing into a microphone at a recording studio on Instagram, laughing and smiling as she did so. Dressed in a chic black turtleneck, Moriah looks like a serious artist ready to make her mark on the world. She's come a long way since singing in her family band and is seemingly ready to take her talent to the next level.
If one thing is certain, it's that Moriah has never played it safe when it comes to her pursuits. Given the lack of guidance when it comes to the real world, she's managed to navigate life pretty well as both a reality TV star, budding singer, and a regular girl trying to make sense of everything around her.