Hannah Neeleman, also known as Ballerina Farm, has issued a response to a viral article about her lifestyle, which further ignited debates about “trad wife” influencers.
The 34-year-old mother of eight recently became the subject of significant online discourse surrounding “trad wives” – a label applied to women who adopt traditional roles of motherhood and homemaking – after The Times published an in-depth profile on Neeleman, titled: “Meet the queen of the ‘trad wives’ (and her eight children).”
Neeleman, who has 17 million followers across her Instagram and TikTok accounts, has risen to social media stardom for her idyllic content and daily vlogs depicting life with her husband, Daniel Neeleman, and their children on their 328-acre farm in Utah. The Juilliard-trained ballerina is often seen online wearing frilly smocks and aprons, as she makes recipes from scratch, tends to their livestock, and sells raw milk and sourdough starter on their Ballerina Farm website.
However, the viral Times article also pointed out the physical and emotional labor that Neeleman performs for her family on a daily basis, so much so that she “sometimes gets so ill from exhaustion that she can’t get out of bed for a week.”
Now, in a video posted to her Instagram and TikTok on July 31, Neeleman has spoken out about the article, calling writer Megan Agnew’s piece an “attack” on her family and marriage.
“A couple of weeks ago, we had a reporter come into our home to learn more about our family and business,” Neeleman narrated in the “get ready with me” style clip, which showed her doing her morning skincare routine, working out, and cooking breakfast for her family.
“We thought the interview went really well, very similar to the dozens of interviews we had done in recent memory. We were taken back, however, when we saw the printed article, which shocked us and shocked the world by being an attack on our family and my marriage, portraying me as oppressed with my husband being the culprit,” Neeleman continued.
“This couldn’t be further from the truth,” she said. “Nothing we said in the interview implied this conclusion, which leads me to believe the angle taken was predetermined.”
The influencer explained that “God and family” are her and her husband’s main priorities, emphasizing that the “greatest day of my life” was when she and Daniel were married 13 years ago.
“Together we have built a business from scratch, we’ve brought eight children into this world, and have prioritized our marriage all along the way. We are co-parents, co-CEOs, co-diaper changers, kitchen cleaners and decision makers. We are one, and I love him more today than I did 13 years ago,” Neeleman said.
She maintained that the couple still have “many dreams” to accomplish and that they aren’t done growing their family. While Neeleman said she’s excited to see what “the future holds” for them, she added: “For now, I’m doing what I love most: being a mother, wife, a businesswoman, a farmer, a lover of Jesus, and making meals from scratch.”
On both Instagram and TikTok, she captioned the minute-and-30-second-long video: “What I’ve been thinking lately…”
The viral Times article, published on July 20, had detailed certain aspects of Neeleman’s traditional lifestyle – much of which she hadn’t disclosed to her millions of social media followers. For one, some fans were outraged that Neeleman has no childcare to help her with the daily duties of raising her eight children: sons Henry, 12; Charles, 10; and George, nine, as well as daughters Frances, seven; Lois, five; Martha, three; Mabel, two; and Flora, one.
Neeleman had also opted out of taking pain-relievers when giving birth to nearly all of her children – except for her daughter Martha who was born in a hospital instead of their usual home birth. Speaking to The Times , Neeleman admitted that she “got an epidural” during Martha’s birth because she was two weeks overdue and already 10 pounds. She reportedly lowered her voice when her husband wasn’t in the room, describing giving birth with an epidural as an “amazing experience.”
“It was kinda great,” she added.
Neeleman, who was raised a devout Mormon in Utah, left home at age 17 to attend the Juilliard School in New York City for ballet. However, shortly after marrying Daniel and welcoming their third child, she quit dancing professionally once the family eventually settled in Utah. According to The Times , Neeleman had initially planned on converting the small barn on their farm into a ballet studio, but the space was instead turned into a schoolroom for her children.
When asked about the “trad wife” label in her interview, the influencer maintained that she doesn’t identify with the internet trend.
“I don’t necessarily identify with it because we are traditional in the sense that it’s a man and a woman, we have children, but I do feel like we’re paving a lot of paths that haven’t been paved before,” Neeleman said. “So for me to have the label of a traditional woman, I’m kinda like, ‘I don’t know if I identify with that.’”
In a follow-up post shared to the Ballerina Farm social media accounts, Neeleman encouraged fans to learn about “our story in my own words” and directed them to the Ballerina Farm website’s “About Us” page.
“Everyday I share a glimpse into our rural farm and family life here in the mountains of northern Utah. I wear many hats – mom, wife, cook, business owner, content creator, lover of God and all things butter,” she captioned the post. “For long time followers and those just joining the journey, I wanted to take the opportunity to tell you our story in my own words.”
Neeleman has been at the center of online “trad wife” debates, most notably alongside fellow influencer Nara Smith – who’s also gained a massive internet following for her DIY recipes from scratch. The “trad wife” phenomenon has grown on platforms like TikTok within the past year, as young women share videos of themselves raising children and performing household duties, which some critics claim are packaged in a way to glamorize traditional gender roles.
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