"Ballerina Farm Influencer Hannah Neeleman Unveils Deep Insights into Her Life in Vanity Fair Profile"

Earlier this month, Hannah Neeleman of the popular Instagram account Ballerina Farm made headlines for an interview in which she said that she doesn’t “necessarily identify” with the tradwife movement with which she is widely associated. She also confessed to The Sunday Times that she enjoyed the one epidural she had out of her eight births; according to the newspaper, her husband said there are times Neeleman “gets so ill from exhaustion that she can’t get out of bed for a week.”

Since the profile was published, the comment section on her Instagram has been flooded with both positive sentiments and messages that split the difference between snark and earnest divorce advice, such as “Girl, run.” Users on TikTok resurfaced an old, since-deleted video in which her husband, Daniel, gave Neeleman an egg apron (which is exactly that: an apron with a bunch of tiny pockets for collecting eggs) for her birthday, instead of the vacation to Greece she hoped for, and then seemed to passive-aggressively demand a “thank you” with a terse “you’re welcome.”

Megan Agnew, who wrote the original profile, released a follow-up piece in which she shared more from their interviews. Agnew seemed to have endured a negative social media response herself.

“In recent days there has been criticism that I, a childless, unmarried woman, didn’t understand that this is the reality of having eight children, all home-schooled, and with no childcare,” she wrote. “But I felt the exact opposite when I was there. It made me understand exactly how it was to be a woman with eight children and no childcare: demanding and rewarding and gloriously intimate and difficult to find a space to speak.”

During one exchange described in the profile, Neeleman was trying to discuss a past pregnancy as her husband continually interrupted and corrected her before Neeleman finally said, “Can you quit chiming in?”

When Agnew asked Neeleman about the criticism that she doesn’t depict more difficult aspects of her roles as wife, mother, and businesswoman, Neeleman answered, “I feel like there’s so much joy in making a beautiful meal for your family, it’s very satisfying, especially when you have had some part in growing or sourcing the food that you have a connection to,” adding, “And hopefully I’m inspiring women to do that.” Neelam’s comments that her Mormon faith shapes her politics and prayer determines her timeline for trying for more children are a reminder that she is sending a message about her values to her followers, even if it isn’t necessarily a reflection of a traditional past.

Despite the intense scrutiny, the tone of the Ballerina Farm accounts haven’t changed. One of Neeleman’s most recent posts is a video that shows her and Daniel in a field, joined by one of their children and a herd of cows. “I’m calling it ‘Dairy Date Night,’” the post’s caption read. It’s an ad for the couple’s forthcoming line of homemade dairy products.