Getty/Instagram:@ballerinafarm
The world learnt about Hannah Neeleman, known on TikTok as Ballerina Farm, in July when she went viral following a Times article about her rural life with her family. The article sparked criticism not only of Neeleman and her family but also of a phenomenon of the TikTok “trad wife” (that’s traditional wife). Once a quirky TikTok trend that reminded us of the appeal of puff sleeves and provided plenty of Nara Smith-inspired “from scratch” memes, the traditional wife trend, which celebrates the values of financial dependence on a husband and dedicating a life to childrearing now feels less amusing and more sinister in a post-Roe era.
When UK Times journalist Megan Agnew was interviewed, Hannah Neeleman staunchly denied identifying the term “trad wife”.
But, in uncanny timing post-Donald Trump‘s presidential win, Neeleman now seems to have stepped up to the plate as the (blonde and carefully made up) face after debuting on the cover of the conservative and controversial Evie Magazine.
Who Is Hannah Neeleman AKA Ballerina Farm?
Neeleman lives seemingly off the grid with her eight children and millionaire husband, Daniel Neeleman, air to the Jet Blue American airline fortune. The Neelemans live on a 328-acre property in the Kamas Valley of Utah and have over $400 million USD net worth.
And this year, she’s become the increasingly problematic trend’s figurehead.
She may not identify with the moniker “traditional wife” but other people identify her with it. Neelman makes her money by depicting a bucolic at-home lifestyle where she cooks with her family, makes meals from scratch, drinks raw milk, and lives seemingly off the grid and by traditional family values. She only seems to leave the farm when she’s winning beauty pageants (at eight weeks post-partum, no less).
Neeleman and her husband are part of the Mormon Church of the Latter-Day Saints and, whether they want it or not, part of a media frenzy around Mormon women which has also included reality TV show The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.
Neeleman staunchly defended herself and her family from the claims made in the article and appeared to distance herself from thtraditionalad wife movement. Bt, with her Evie cover sto,ry it seems everyone’s favourite conservative Ballerina is no longer flying low.
Hannah Neelaman And The Evie Magazine Cover Story
On the cover of the issue, Neelaman poses in a white dress with puffed sleeves, her long blonde hair held back by a matching white cotton bandana. Against a background of wheatfields, she leans in and milks a cow, squinting soulfully at the camera. The tagline? The New American Dream.
If the times were critical, Evie is effusive. “On her first-ever cover, the former Julliard ballerina turned beauty queen and farmer brings us in for an intimate look at life, marriage, and motherhood, documenting her brand-building journey to an audience of 20 million people worldwide,” they wrote in a promotional article for the issue.
For Evie, Neeleman represents “a new vision of American culture—a celebration of Americana, beauty, grounded ambition, and timeless values.” The publication describes itself as being at the “forefront” of a “cultural shift” back to the “resurgence of the values and aspirations that once defined the American dream.”
With their emphasis on Neeleman’s hard work and implied grit, Evie seems to be trying to frame their heroine in a girl-bossy narrative. Neeleman herself tried to get this narrative out following the disastrous Times article, which was so damning in depicting an exhausted woman who had sacrificed her dreams of being a ballerina to be trapped by her children and husband and forced to give birth without painkillers that TikTokers started posting hashtags like “#saveballerinafarm” and suggesting her husband was abusive (she has strenuously denied this).
Neeleman responded by posting to the Ballerina Farm website, documenting the course of her life with a heavy emphasis on her involvement in business and entrepreneurialism.
But the content distributed by Evie Magazine itself is far from “girl bossy.” Next to Neeleman sits the cover “The Importance Of Being Sexy: Why Society Needs Aspirational Beauty”, while on the Evie website you can find articles like “Why Are Women Struggling To Be Feminine In Their Relationships?” (hint, we’re trying to juggle our careers with our domestic obligations) and advice on how to have a “guilt-free” Thanksgiving while trying to lose weight. And, of course, there’s “6 Lies We’ve Been Told About The Birth Control Pill.”
On the cover, food editor Vani Hari has praised Donald Trump’s appointment of quasi-wellness guru Robert F. Kennedy and right-wing Dutch political commentator Eva Vlaardingerbroek. Vlaardingerbroek is described, in what many would find an interesting choice of words, as a “shieldmaiden”. This term refers to female Vikings or Valkyries in old Norse. Still, it has since been co-opted by the alt-right to describe the female faces of white supremacism and the conservative movement.
It’s the kind of editorial we haven’t seen in women’s publications since the 90s, but Evie would like us to visit a time long before that.
Neelman’s choice to appear in Evie following the election of incumbent president Donald Trump seems off for a woman trying to distance herself from a movement that posits the best place for women is out of the workforce and in the safety of the kitchen. As Evie describes the story: “People are longing for simplicity, authenticity, and purpose.” For those who subscribe to the trad wife life, a woman’s authentic, simple and purpose-driven life is in her home, serving her family.
What Is Evie Magazine?
Evie was founded in 2018 by Brittany Martinez, a model and entrepreneur and her husband, Gabriel Hugoboom. It is bankrolled by billionaire Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and, as per The New York Times, prolific conservative campaign donor and public and financial supporter of Donald Trump. In 2023, Rolling Stone published an investigation in Evie. It oulined how it used traditional formats found on women’s fashion publications, from Met Gala roundups to Taylor Swift Era’s Tour outfit breakdowns, to seduce Gen Z.
When she launched the website, Martinez described the title’s purpose. “For decades, women’s publications have tried to convince women they can be just like men, instead of celebrating femininity and what makes women wonderfully unique,” she wrote in an article for Quilette. Essentially, she wanted to be what she described as “a conservative Cosmo.”
Many people, of course, take issue with the versions of 2000s women’s magazines that plugged fad diets and “678 ways to please your man”. But Martinez felt there was space to be even harder on women. Helpful articles on the site include 5 Things Men Need From Their Wives, How To Unlearn The Female Power Role, How To Seduce A Man Without Resorting To Sex, and Feminism Doesn’t Help Sexual Violence Survivors. It Just Perpetuates Victimhood.
One of its most extreme articles suggested that some women had a sexual “fetish” for late-term abortions after digging up an obscure Reddit fetish thread. They decried what they framed as a viral trend as reflective of the results of the sexual liberation movement.
Responses To The Ballerina Farm Evie Cover Story
@_anastasiagracia_ #fypツ #hannahneeleman #ballerinafarm #tradwives #eviemagazine ♬ original sound – Anastasia
Responses from the mainstream media outlets Evie purports to provide an alternative to haven’t been positive. Express U.S. ran a story with the headline “Fury as millionaire’s ‘trad wife’ poses in magazine dubbed ‘Third Reich Propaganda’.
On a Reddit thread titled Tradfemsnark, commenters noted, “The New American Dream: Being a lovely ballerina and pageant queen that marries the son of a billionaire and has a busload of kids doesn’t sound very new to me.” They also pointed to the term “shieldmaiden” used to describe Eva Vlaardingerbroek, noting, “The white nationalist dog whistles are dog-whistling.”
Meanwhile, TikTok is pointing out Hannah Neelman’s choice to align with Evie Magazine as undermining the traditional wife movement and its defender’s broader claims that they are exercising freedom of choice in their personal lives and passively documenting their activity. That is, not acting as shieldmaidens or attempting to ‘recruit’ other women to their conservative lifestyles.
“She actively chose to get up in some 1940s ass aesthetic and be on the cover and have them call her Ballerina Farm and the new American dream,” TikToker named Anastasia says. “These are all choices; she’s 34, so when we talk about trad wives, why are we acting like they’re not trying to influence people… this lady is actively aligning herself with people who think that all women should be like her, this isn’t just a happy family who are making choices they are actively on an influential campaign,” she summarises.
But Evie and Ballerina Farm fans are loving it. “This is how you would think that Sunday Times piece would have gone for Hannah Neeleman and Ballerina Farm,” says Sarah Sansoni, “She’s finally getting the cover she deserves.”
Related Posts:
- 9 Moments From the ‘Ballerina Farm’ Interview That Have Us Rethinking Trad Wife Content
- Unpacking The ‘Ballerina Farm’ Article Backlash
- Is ‘Ballerina Farm’ Making A (Quiet) Rebuttal?
- Nara Smith Is Pushing Back On People Reducing Her To A ‘Trad Wife’
- The Terrifying Rise Of Alt-Right Female Influencers
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