A Mormon mother of eight who rose to fame for her engaging content about “traditional wives” is now the subject of intense criticism after a recent article provided a glimpse into the realities of her ultra-traditional lifestyle.
Hannah Neeleman, or Ballerina Farm as she is known online, made headlines earlier this year after competing in Mrs. World just 12 days after giving birth without pain relief.
This week, fans of the Utah-based content creator have expressed concern after a Times of London articlein which she was described as the ‘Queen of Traditional Wives’, revealing a less idyllic life than her social media presence suggests.
Readers were shocked by the in-depth article, which showed Hannah, who is married to 35-year-old JetBlue heir Daniel Neeleman, being frequently confronted by her husband, who also said she was so exhausted from her hectic lifestyle that she was bedridden for days.
Fans shared their thoughts on social media, with many declaring that they had to “save her.”
Hannah Neeleman, or Ballerina Farm as she is known online, made headlines earlier this year after competing in Mrs. World just 12 days after giving birth without pain relief
“This article exposes why the traditional wife phenomenon is so dangerous. It encourages young women to become wives and mothers before they have the chance to learn and explore their own ambitions and desires,” one fan posted on X.
“And now I have to get all caught up on Ballerina Farm. I’m so behind! She gave up Juilliard for this guy? And he gave her an apron instead of taking her to Greece? His dad literally owns Jet Blue,” one user wrote on X, referencing a recent video in which Hannah was given an apron to collect chicken eggs after she wish to travel to Greece several times.
“We have to SAVE HER,” added another.
“She puts every day last. She puts herself last. Her family puts her last,” TikTok creator Rhody Ray said in a video“Who she was as a person before she became a wife and mother – that part of her is gone.”
“The real deception going on with the (Ballerina Farm) account is the pretense that everything is easy, breezy and beautiful, when in reality it appears that Hannah Neeleman is slowly working herself to death working multiple jobs, taking care of these children, and being an online influencer with no extra help,” another creator said. Dear Claire Burke raged in a now-viral video.
The article, written by Megan Agnew, also noted that Daniel, whom Hannah married when she was 21, often took over the conversation. He even insisted on showing her around the farm, despite the fact that Hannah had called them to come home and Megan wanted to speak to her alone.
“I look at my watch and I feel nervous,” Megan recalls in the article as Daniel shows her around the farm. “I want to talk to Neeleman.”
The article also states that Hannah was only given medication during labor when Daniel was not there. He told Megan this when her husband was on the phone, admitting that it was “pretty amazing.”
The 34-year-old has amassed millions of followers across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube with her “trad wife” content, short for “traditional wife,” which describes a woman who trades in her modern femininity for domestic duties like cooking, cleaning and having children.
Hannah, an aspiring ballerina, moved to New York City at age 17 to study at Juilliard. Shortly after, she met her current husband, which changed her life dramatically.
Hannah left New York City and her dreams of becoming a dancer to live on a farm in Utah instead
Hannah’s social media feeds are filled with snaps of the blonde beauty baking fresh sourdough bread, tending to the livestock or dancing around her rustic kitchen with her kids
“My goal was New York City. I left home when I was 17 and I was so excited to get there, I just loved the energy. And I was going to be a ballerina. I was a good ballerina,” Hannah told the Times.
“But I knew my life would be different if I had children,” she added.
Her social media accounts tell the story of a city girl who thrives on the simple farm life, and of a self-made businesswoman who became a social media sensation and built her successful business from scratch.
Yet Megan sometimes showed skepticism about her happiness.
“I look out over the vastness and I don’t quite agree. Daniel wanted to live in the great wilderness of the West, so they did; he wanted to farm, so they do; he likes date nights once a week, so they go (they have a sitter on those nights); he didn’t want any sitters in the house, so there aren’t any,” she wrote.
‘The only space that was intended for Neeleman, a small shed that she wanted to convert into a ballet studio, eventually became the children’s classroom.’
Although Daniel told The Times they are “co-CEOs,” he admitted that his wife – who has no babysitting help for her eight children – sometimes “gets so sick with exhaustion that she can’t get out of bed for a week.”
The couple now lives with their eight children: Henry, 12, Charles, 10, George, 9, Frances, 7, Lois, 5, Martha, 3, Mabel, 3, and Flora, 6 months, on a 328-acre ranch in Utah. The article repeatedly notes that this is not the life Hannah originally wanted.
In the article, Daniel tells the reporter that Hannah initially refused to go on a date with him after they met through mutual friends at a college basketball game.
To make time for Hannah, he made arrangements with his father’s airline, and not only did he get a seat on her flight from Salt Lake City to New York, he also got to sit next to her.
Hannah is a Julliard-trained ballerina, successful businesswoman, beauty queen, homemaker and mother of eight, but fans are now concerned about her home situation
Daniel proposed just a month after they started dating, and got married just two months later — despite the fact that Hannah was still studying at the prestigious school and wanted to finish her education.
The ballet dancer became pregnant three months after their wedding, while still a student, becoming the “first Juilliard student in modern history to become pregnant.”
Hannah has risen to international fame on social media as the face behind the Ballerina Farm accounts, which now have nearly 20 million followers across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.
Although she is one of the more well-known so-called traditional wives, Hannah told The Times of London that she doesn’t “identify” with the traditional wife label, as she has worked as a content creator while raising her family.
“We’re traditional in the sense that we’re husband and wife and have kids, but I do feel like we’re walking a lot of paths that haven’t been walked before,” she explained.
After graduating from Julliard, the aspiring dancer put her career on the back burner to focus on raising a family.
She moved to Brazil after Daniel was offered a job at one of his father’s new companies in South America, where the self-proclaimed ‘city person’ discovered her passion for agriculture.
In 2017, Hannah moved with her husband and their children back to the US and to a ranch in Utah. There, Hannah began documenting the highs – and lows – of running the ranch and caring for their many children on Instagram.
Hannah and Daniel started their business Ballerina Farm in 2019. They now sell a range of products made from their livestock, including ground beef and pork, as well as fresh desserts and fruit and vegetables.
Hannah, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, recently returned to the limelight and entered the coveted Mrs. World competition, just two weeks after giving birth to her eighth child in January.