This Trad Wife's Not-So-Perfect Life Was Exposed

Cheezburger

#tradwives #trad #ballerinafarm

Transcript

00:00This tradwife's perfect life is exposed in a new interview.

00:04The tradwives of TikTok are sparking outrage yet again.

00:06Tradwives, or traditional wives,

00:08is a trend among female creators

00:10that promotes a lifestyle glorifying conservative values

00:13and conventional gender roles.

00:14Tradwives believe women belong in the kitchen

00:17and not the workplace.

00:18Creators like Nara Smith have gone viral

00:20with their over-the-top deference to their husbands

00:23and complicated cooking from scratch.

00:24Here's everything I eat in a day

00:26as someone that loves to cook,

00:28but is also 37 weeks pregnant.

00:30I start off with some herbal tea

00:31and then take my prenatals.

00:33But none of the tradwives have been more controversial

00:35than Hannah Nealman,

00:36one of the most popular tradwife creators on TikTok.

00:39She shares her life as a devoted wife

00:41to her husband, Daniel,

00:42and a mother of eight living on a rural Utah homestead

00:45as Ballerina Farm on social media.

00:48Her TikTok account has more than 8 million followers.

00:51Who can't get enough of Hannah's idyllic farm life,

00:53where she's often seen milking cows

00:55and cooking meals from scratch.

00:57But people started to question Hannah's lifestyle

00:59after the 34-year-old gave an intimate glimpse

01:02into her so-called perfect life in a recent interview.

01:05Because to readers,

01:07her situation seems pretty far from perfect.

01:09Okay, that's my birthday present from Daniel.

01:13I'm holding their tickets to Greece.

01:15So, plane tickets?

01:17Oh, my egg apron!

01:20I made it.

01:23Great, now you can gather eggs.

01:25So cute.

01:25It's really cute.

01:26You're welcome.

01:28Thanks, honey.

01:29Before Ballerina Farm,

01:30Hannah was a professional dancer

01:31who studied ballet at the prestigious

01:34Juilliard School of Dance in New York City.

01:36Oh, fulfill her dream of dancing in New York?

01:38Hannah competed in beauty pageants

01:40with hopes of earning a scholarship.

01:42But everything changed after a rather unique first date

01:45with her now-husband, Daniel.

01:46After meeting her at a college basketball game,

01:48Daniel called upon his father,

01:50the founder of Airline JetBlue,

01:52to get the seat next to Hannah on a five-hour flight

01:54from Salt Lake City to New York.

01:56Despite still being an undergrad,

01:58she married Daniel just three months later.

02:00Fast forward to today,

02:01Hannah has traded her ballet shoes for work boots

02:04in order to build her and Daniel's dream homestead.

02:06She shares her daily tasks,

02:08like milking the dairy cows, shoveling manure,

02:11harvesting the crops she uses

02:12to feed her family of 10, and more.

02:14She brought her followers along

02:16as she stepped back into her gown and tiara

02:18to compete in the 2023 Mrs. American Pageant and won.

02:22She even returned to compete in the Mrs. World Pageant,

02:25pulling off the impossible,

02:27taking the stage a mere 12 days

02:29after giving birth to her daughter, Flora,

02:31breastfeeding her newborn backstage

02:32while wearing five-inch heels.

02:34Beagle, our soaring national symbol

02:37of resilience and majestic beauty.

02:40Once on the endangered species list,

02:42Americans have helped it regain its foothold

02:45as king of the skies.

02:47God bless America.

02:48In a new article with The Times,

02:50Hannah is the main focus of the interview.

02:52How does she do it all?

02:54And how much does her Mormon faith play a role

02:56in their rustic, wholesome lifestyle?

02:58But it's husband Daniel,

03:00an ever-present figure behind Hannah,

03:02who rephrases her answers to the writer's questions,

03:04who revealed himself as Ballerina Farm's mastermind.

03:08The Times article depicts Hannah

03:09as a cheerfully ignorant prisoner,

03:11overworked and underappreciated.

03:13She admits she never wanted to live

03:15the life of a homesteader, but her husband did.

03:17The Neelman's homeschool, their children,

03:19they don't have a television, they don't have iPads,

03:21and they don't use nannies.

03:23Per their faith, Hannah gave birth

03:25to nearly all of her kids at home,

03:27and without pain medication.

03:28Though she never complains, her husband says,

03:30Hannah sometimes becomes so ill from exhaustion

03:33that she stays in bed for a week.

03:34People are cringing at the contrast

03:36between the idyllic image

03:37portrayed on Ballerina Farm's TikTok

03:40and the brutally hard work it takes Hannah

03:42to make her family's life on the farm

03:44as pleasant as it looks.

03:46Many feel sorry for Hannah's sacrifice,

03:48noting that Juilliard's admittance rate

03:50is one of the lowest in the country,

03:51making her rare achievements as a young ballet dancer

03:54even more impressive.

03:56Worst of all, the dynamic between Hannah and Daniel

03:59has become tainted in the public's eyes.

04:01One video in particular shows Hannah opening

04:03a birthday present from her husband

04:05that left both Hannah and her millions of fans

04:08incredibly disappointed.

04:09As a fan of Ballerina Farm's, it's the egg apron.

04:13It's the unwrapped gift.

04:15It is the lack of effort put forth

04:18that solidified the end of my marriage.

04:22The trend of internet trad wife influencers

04:24seem to emerge in response to the popular feminist

04:26girl boss stereotypes of the 2010s.

04:29Not too long ago, young women were being primed

04:31to lean in to the world of career climbing,

04:34to break the glass ceiling in industries

04:36that have been long dominated by men.

04:38While some still consider Hannah's life on Ballerina Farm

04:41as the American dream,

04:42others are waking up to the idea

04:43that she's merely a trophy wife

04:45who gave up everything to honor her husband and her faith.

04:48For more UN videos visit www.un.org

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