What Is a Trad Wife? Inside the Influencer Movement of Ballerina Farm, Nara Smith and Other Creators

TikTok and Instagram have seen many trends come and go among content creators. The latest type of content causing a stir comes from a niche type of influencer known as a “trad wife.” But what exactly does that term mean, and who are the “trad wives” of social media?

What Is a Trad Wife?

The term “trad wife” is shorthand for “traditional wife.” In a broad sense, this is someone who chooses to practice conventional gender roles in a relationship, usually as a homemaker. Many trad wife creators on TikTok and Instagram have gained a following by showcasing their homemade meals and other ways they keep house. Some even dress in 1950s-inspired wardrobes.

People have had varying definitions for the “trad wife” term through the years. For example, in 2021, Researcher Mariel Cooksey defined it as “a movement that’s part aesthetic and part ideology, encouraging women to embrace supposedly feminine characteristics like chastity and submissiveness, and trade feminist empowerment for a patriarchal vision of gender norms,” according to the Political Research Associates.

Meanwhile, in 2022, trad wife influencer Estee Williams described a trad wife as a “woman who prefers to take a traditional or ultra-traditional role in marriage, including beliefs that a woman’s place is in the home.”

Who Are the Trad Wife Influencers?

The “tradwife” hashtag has nearly 30,000 videos on TikTok and more than 81,000 posts on Instagram. Among the biggest content creators in the niche is Estee, who has 120,000 followers on Instagram and nearly 200,000 followers on TikTok. She married her husband, Conner Williams , in January 2023.

There’s also Nara Smith , who does not identify herself as a trad wife, but her content and aesthetic generally match the feel of other trad wife videos. She married Lucky Blue Smith in 2020, and they share three children.

Many fans of the genre also follow Hannah Neeleman , a.k.a. Ballerina Farm, who caused controversy in July 2024 when she told The Sunday Times that she doesn’t associate herself with the term.

“We are traditional in the sense that it’s a man and a woman,” she said of the dynamic with husband Daniel. “We have children, but I do feel like we’re paving a lot of paths that haven’t been paved before. So for me to have the label of a traditional woman. I don’t know if I identify with that.”

Hannah and Daniel share eight kids, and she has said on TikTok that they don’t have a limit on the number of children they plan to have.

Other trad wife influencers include Cynthia Loewen, Rachel Joy, Sarah Wild Mothering and Kelly Havens .

What Kind of Content Do Trad Wives Post?

The content that trad wives post varies between each account. Nara, for example, has become known for dressing up in ‘50s-style garb and making anything fans can think of from scratch, including bubblegum, cereal and more.

Meanwhile, Ballerina Farm posts about life on her family’s farm of the same name, where she milks cows, cooks, wrangles her eight kids and more.

Estee also dresses in vintage clothing as she offers advice to her followers on the trad wife lifestyle in addition to sharing videos of herself cooking meals, baking desserts and tending to her home.