Profile of Utah's "Ballerina Farm" influencer shows a darker side of tradwife life
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Thumbnails from the TikTok account of Hannah Neeleman, a.k.a. "Ballerina Farm."
A new profile of the famed Utah "tradwife" influencer Hannah Neeleman is raising eyebrows with its portrayal of the misogyny Neeleman has experienced while becoming "Ballerina Farm."
Driving the news: The Times of London obtained unprecedented access to Neeleman's Summit County ranch for a recent story that depicts a pattern of sexism in the family, from pressures to marry young to the health effects of parenting eight kids in rural isolation.
Why it matters: The profile is calling into question claims that the tradwife trend celebrates women's choice by elevating those who elect to fill traditional gender roles, centering motherhood and domestic tasks.
- "Frankly, it was an incredibly upsetting read that portrayed Neeleman as a victim of both a controlling husband and a lucrative brand that thrives on her submission to his ideals," author Kady Ruth Ashcroft wrote in Jezebel.
Zoom in: Here are five revelations that have cast Neeleman's story in a new light.
1. She initially didn't want to date her now-husband.
Neeleman "wouldn't go on a date with me for six months," her husband Daniel Neeleman, son of JetBlue founder David Neeleman, told the Times.
How it worked: Daniel pulled strings at JetBlue to get seated next to her on a five-hour flight, which became their "first date."
2. She married young despite early reluctance.
She married after dating for two months despite wanting to wait until she finished her training at Juilliard.
What they're saying: "Back then I thought we should date for a year [before marriage]," Neeleman told the Times. "So I could finish school and whatever. And Daniel was, like, 'It's not going to work, we've got to get married now.'"
- She was pregnant three months after their wedding.
3. She suffers from fatigue.
Neeleman requires prolonged bed rest to recover from the rigors of parenting, homesteading and creating content.
- She "sometimes gets so ill from exhaustion that she can't get out of bed for a week," the Times reported Daniel saying.
4. Her planned ballet studio never came to be.
She had wanted to convert a small barn into a dance studio — "the only space earmarked to be Neeleman's own" on the family's farm, the Times reports.
- Instead it's where her kids "learn a Mormon-Christian syllabus, taught by a woman who lives down the track," the article states.
5. She loved her one epidural amid six unmedicated homebirths.
The Neelemans have celebrated their children's home births on social media — including one less than two weeks before Neeleman competed in the Mrs. World pageant in January.
Yes, but: Neeleman "lower[ed] her voice" to tell Times reporter Megan Agnew she received an epidural while her husband was working during her daughter's hospital delivery three years ago.
- "It was kinda great," she told Agnew while her husband was out of the room.