PETALING JAYA, September 29 — American woman Nikole Mitchell is a pastor-turned-stripper - and she says she has never been happier after embracing her new identity a year ago.

Mitchell, who comes from a strict conservative Baptist family, told New York Post that she had always fantasized about becoming a stripper since young.

"But I was indoctrinated to believe that my desires and my body were innately sinful and bad.

"Among the other values I was taught was that women were not allowed to lead and that they only belonged in the kitchen with their children.

"Although my dreams of becoming a stripper went against everything I was told, I decided to become a pastor because of my love for performing.”

She shared that she became a pastor because one of her former pastors recognised the talent in her and even told her that she had the theologian traits.

"They invited me to become one of them, which is to be on stage in front of thousands of people. And that was what I had been dreaming of doing for years.”

But things were not as smooth-sailing for Mitchell as she then began questioning her sexuality when she attended a LGBT-oriented theatre performance in the year 2016.

"I realised I didn’t think I was straight and it rocked my world, and that if I revealed my queerness I would lose it all because the church is not welcoming to queer people.

"I felt like I was living a very duplicitous life and struggled to keep my sexuality a secret.”

And so she left the church for good after giving her widely-attended sermon on July 4 in 2017 and never showed up to church again.

On how she became a stripper, she told the news portal that she followed a coach’s Instagram account who was doing lingerie modeling and had posted pictures on social media.

"As much as I was triggered by those images, I was also drawn to them at the same time.

"And that was why I decided to delve deeper into discovering my own sexual desires and soon after that I was linked up with a photographer to do my first nude photoshoot.”

The pastor-turned-stripper also launched an OnlyFans account where she posts explicit photos and videos in exchange for money and has been racking up a lot of subscribers.

Mitchell also shared on her Instagram account that she had embarked on the journey of full self-expression and has been receiving followers and has even been invited to American host Jimmy Kimmel’s show.

She penned her experiences on her social media account saying that she took many leaps of faith, left old identities and stepped into truer identities.

"I trusted myself even when I felt crazy. I loved myself even when others didn’t.

"I held onto the vision I had for my life and I let the vision be bigger than all my fears.”