Why Everyone Is Suddenly Obsessed With Ballerina Farm

Have you taken a trip to Ballerina Farm yet? With 9.3 million followers on Instagram and 8.5 million on TikTok, the original trad wife influencer — real name Hannah Neeleman — has been well-known on social media for years, but has recently become real-world famous too following a controversial newspaper feature.

In an interview with The Sunday Times, Hannah, 34, a mom of eight who lives on a 328-acre Utah farm with her multimillionaire husband, Daniel Neeleman, denied she was a “trad wife” at all — but most of the world disagrees. In fact, people are getting pretty angry about the lifestyle the family promotes.

So, what’s actually going on with this family and why is everyone suddenly so obsessed? Let’s get to the bottom of it:

Who Are Hannah and Daniel Neeleman?

Under the handle Ballerina Farm, Hannah, a former ballet student at New York’s mega-prestigious Juilliard School, posts across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube about life on the family’s Utah farm. She cooks, she cleans, she rears multiple animals and she homeschools and cares for all those kids: Henry, 12, Charles, 10, George, 9, Frances, 7, Lois, 5, Martha, 3, Mabel, 2, and baby Flora, 6 months. Despite Hannah being a stay-at-home mom, the stratospheric social media rise of the Ballerina Farm brand has allowed the Neelemans to monetize their simple pleasures: They sell meat boxes from the cattle they breed, along with multiple other branded farm products like sourdough starters, beeswax candles and rock salt.

When the couple met, Hannah was enjoying big city life — but, depending on your perspective, Daniel (heir to the JetBlue airline fortune) either swept her off her feet and gave her the rural lifestyle and perfect family of her dreams, or he destroyed her life as a beautiful, independent woman who had previously escaped her traditional Mormon upbringing to pursue her talents. So, you can see why it’s all a little controversial.

What Happened in the Interview?

Not much, actually! In the original Sunday Times piece, journalist Megan Agnew spent a day on the farm with the family but struggled to speak to Hannah alone, instead finding that Daniel wanted to mansplain all things farming while his wife tended to their brood and seemingly looked to him for approval when asked direct questions. They declared themselves “co-CEOs” of the family business, and Hannah said “I don’t know if I identify with” the trad wife label. “We are traditional in the sense that it’s a man and a woman, we have children,” she said. “But I do feel like we’re paving a lot of paths that haven’t been paved before.” She added that she believes that they are “doing what God wants.”

But people are upset because, during one of the interview’s more candid moments, Hannah revealed that her dream was always for a big, glamorous life in the city: more of the Big Apple, less of the apple pie. “My goal was New York City,” she said. “I left home at 17 and I was so excited to get there, I just loved that energy. And I was going to be a ballerina. I was a good ballerina. But I knew that when I started to have kids my life would start to look different.”

But They’re Rich — Surely They Must Have Tons of Help?

Wrong! The interviewer was expecting to meet a nanny or three behind the scenes, but it emerged that Hannah has no external help with childcare. Nobody is disputing that Daniel is an involved dad, but Hannah is certainly the main caregiver and homemaker in their sprawling home. And she looks great all the time too, even entering beauty pageants when baby Flora was just a few weeks old. Understandably, she’s exhausted; Daniel even let slip that she’s sometimes so burned out that she takes to bed for a week (but didn’t mention who looks after the kids then).

What Else Are People Upset About?

The main part of the Ballerina Farm story that’s making people angry, aside from the speculation that Daniel is in control of Hannah against her will, is the fact that there are so many contradictions. For instance, their kids aren’t allowed screens, but their lives are all over social media, and Hannah makes a point about being a simple, stay-at-home mom but is also earning a fortune from it, as well as mostly just showing the good parts.

While we’re used to influencers making life look like one long highlight reel, we know that being a mom of eight, whatever your situation, has got to be challenging, and yet Hannah would have us believe that it’s all good. “I feel like there’s so much joy in making a beautiful meal for your family,” she said. “It’s very satisfying, especially when you have had some part in growing or sourcing the food that you have a connection to. And hopefully I’m inspiring women to do that.”

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Even if Hannah is genuinely blissfully happy through her tiredness, the problem for her many critics is that most “trad wives” aren’t quite so naturally glamorous and Insta-ready, so the family are promoting a lifestyle that might not be much fun for women without the Neelemans’ many advantages: namely, looks, wealth and reach. The trad wife movement is huge on Instagram and TikTok, and Hannah is at the forefront of it whether she uses the label herself. She might be conquering being both a trad wife and an entrepreneur, but could she make other women become oppressed if they can only manage the first part? Or is it OK for women to pursue a “trad” lifestyle if that’s what they want, whether it’s for religious reasons or simply because they really love baking and popping out babies while their husband provides? It’s basically the “can women ever have it all?” argument at its most extreme.

Oh, and then, of course, there’s this … a video in which this beautiful, bright woman gets an egg apron for her birthday from the man who loves her. Sure, everyone’s had a dud present from their partner in the past, but there’s something about Hannah’s subtle but evident disappointment that has riled a lot of people. Does she deserve more, or is she truly living the life she wants? Or is this just a deliberate comedy moment in what is basically a scripted reality show?

As one critic wrote via TikTok, “Ballerina Farm has ruined me. A talented woman with a full ride to Juilliard whose millionaire husband convinced her to give up her dreams of becoming a ballerina in NYC.”

When they put it like that, it sounds a little like we’re watching a holiday Netflix movie in the wrong order, doesn’t it?

How Have Hannah and Daniel Reacted to the Backlash?

Who has time to confront controversy when there are eight little mouths to feed and a farm to run? The Neelemans have mostly just carried on doing their thing, but on Sunday, July 28, Hannah posted an Instagram Reel in which she and Daniel enjoy a “date night” at their dairy. The scenery is stunning, Hannah looks beautiful and she and Daniel make a show of appearing very much in love. “It’s a world we created, and I couldn’t love it more,” she concludes pointedly.