Why Ballerina Farm Influencer Hannah Neeleman Rejects "Tradwife" Label

Hannah Neeleman won't be subscribing to any titles. 

The influencer—who rose to fame under the moniker Ballerina Farm—shared that she doesn't consider herself a "tradwife," a.k.a. the viral label given to social media stars whose content adheres to the traditional gender roles of a wife, homemaker and stay-at-home mom. 

“I don’t necessarily identify with it,” Hannah told The Times in an interview published July 26, “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.”

And her husband of 12 years, Daniel Neeleman, agrees with her, noting that the former Juilliard ballerina has developed her own career out of documenting herself competing in beauty pageants, cooking from scratch, managing their Utah farm and raising their eight kids: Henry, 12, Charles, 10, George, 9, Frances, 7, Lois, 5, Martha, 3, Mabel, 2, and Flora, 6 months.

“We’re co-CEOs,” Daniel explained to The Times. “We are.” 

And while he may not be on board with his wife being called a "tradwife," the 36-year-old has learned to let the internet's opinions go, admitting that he's "numb" to any hate the couple receives. 

And that criticism has included comments about how they spend their money, with Daniel—whose dad David Neeleman is a founder of JetBlue—receiving backlash earlier this month after giving Hannah an egg apron for her birthday instead of her wish for tickets to Greece. (Singer Ellie Goulding even commented on their TikTok video, “Take her to Greece please.”)

For now, Hannah is working on taking a page from her husband’s book when it comes to the online trolls.

“Daniel is so good about that,” the 34-year-old gushed. “He says you can’t lean into what people are saying or the titles people are putting on you."

The Mrs. American pageant winner added, "You just have to live your life and shut that out, because if not it will overtake you.”