New reality show The Sisterhood follows young women as they decide whether being a nun is for them
A new docuseries starts this week on Lifetime offering rare insights into the discernment process of young women deciding whether they want to swap marriage and a regular 9 to 5, for a life as a nun.
The Sisterhood: Becoming Nuns airs on Tuesday and follows the five twenty-somethings as they figure out whether the cloistered life is for them.
Christie Young, 28, is one of the women who appears in the docuseries. Her hobby is playing in a country music band but she's been thinking on and off about a vocation for several years.
The cameras follow her as she visits convents to see if it is for her.
Speaking about her big decision on the Today show, she admitted there was a lot to think about.
"Thinking about becoming a nun means giving up a lot of things," she said.
"Being in the world we very much think 'oh, we're going to get married, have babies and families, all of these other things [like] jobs and careers. And these are things that we're thinking 'ok, maybe not, maybe our whole direction is changing'."
She says the nuns were relaxed about letting the cameras in.
"I was a little bit surprised to find out that they were going to be filming in the convents and the nuns are OK with that. We kind of think of nuns to be very private and very quiet, though they are not that way... we think of them that way," she told Fox 411.
Mary Donahue, senior vice president at Lifetime, told the network the production team worked hard to establish a relationship of trust with the convents.
"I hope that [viewers] walk away understanding what an intense and profound journey [becoming a nun is]. It's a brave thing to take that step.... I hope that they have a further understanding of what it means to be committed in that way as a sister, and I hope they have a profound respect for the work these women do," she said.