The Ballerina Farm Controversy, Explained: Why Is Everyone Talking About Influencer Hannah Neeleman? (2024)

Hannah Neeleman,a Utah influencerknown online as@ballerinafarm, has been making headlines following an in-depth profile that revealed the complexities of her life as a traditional homemaker and content creator.

With over 17 million followers across Instagram and TikTok combined, Hannah rose to social media fame with her posts about her homesteading lifestyle on a vast Utah farm alongside her husband, Daniel Neeleman, and their eight children.

The article, published by U.K.’s The Sunday Times in July 2024, delved into the nuances of Hannah’s daily life producing content of her life as a mother of eight and the challenges she faces behind the scenes. The profile has sparked widespread debate about the "tradwife" phenomenon she is heavily associated with — though Hannah told The Times she does not “identify” with the term. She also insisted that their content is simply "doing what God wants."

While Hannah’s social media content portrays an idyllic lifestyle, the profile revealed asomewhatdifferent reality,as Daniel spoke about the mom-of-eight experiencing bouts of exhaustion and raising her family withoutchildcare (at his request), prompting viewers to question how much of her life on social media is romanticized.

Here’s a closer look at Hannah and Daniel Neeleman, why The Times interview has generated such strong reactions and how the Neelemans are responding to the controversy.

Who are Hannah and Daniel Neeleman?

Hannah, a former pageant queen and ballerina who trained at Juilliard, met her husband, Daniel, at a college basketball game through a mutual friend, per The Times. However, their first date wasn’t until six months later, on a JetBlue flight from Salt Lake City to New York, arranged through Daniel's connections as the son of JetBlue founder, David Neeleman.

The couple married three months after their first date, and Hannah became the first pregnant undergraduate in Juilliard's history. They started their family in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where Daniel worked for his father’s security company, Vigzul. Eventually, they settled on their 328-acre farm in Utah.

The couple has eight children ranging from a few months to 12 years old, often featured across Hannah’s social media accounts. Daniel also shares aspects of their farm life under the handle @hogfathering.

The Neelemans display their traditional family dynamic and homesteading activities on TikTok, including Hannah making meals from scratch and the whole family milking cows. The homemaking videos have catapulted the family to social media fame — their accounts now boast over 20 million followers combined.

What is Ballerina Farm?

Ballerina Farm is the name ofHannah’s social media accounts, the Neelemans' sprawling 328-acre farm in Kamas, Utah, and the couple’s farm-based business. The farm’s social media account, @ballerinafarmstore, features scenes of bread-baking, cow-milking and homeschooling, and has garnered a massive following online.

The company sells a range of products such as dairy items, meat and kitchen goods.

The name "Ballerina Farm" is a reference to Hannah’s background in ballet, combined with her current life on the farm with her husband. As they stated in The Times profile, Daniel and Hannah are co-CEOs of the brand Ballerina Farm.

Why are people upset about their interview with The Times?

In July 2024, The Sunday Times published a detailed profile of Hannah and Daniel that stirred up controversy as it revealed both public and private aspects of their homesteading experience.

The piece dubbed Hannah "the Queen of the tradwives" and in addition to quoting her describing her joy at motherhood, it highlighted some of the stark realities behind her social media posts such as severe exhaustion and lack of childcare help(Daniel is stated as not wanting nannies).

Among one of the rare moments in the article when Hannah was able to talk to the journalist without being interrupted, she admitted there was one time she got an epidural during the birth of her daughter, Martha, who was overdue, and Daniel was out of town. “It was an amazing experience,” she said.

The profile also touched on Hannah's sacrifices for the family, such as giving up her ballet career.

“I gave up dance, which was hard,” the influencer admitted. “You give up a piece of yourself.” She added that Daniel also “gave up his career ambitions,” but the journalist noted that living on the farm was his dream.

Later, Hannah said, “My goal was New York City. I left home at 17 and I was so excited to get there, I just loved that energy. And I was going to be a ballerina. I was a good ballerina. But I knew that when I started to have kids my life would start to look different.”

As the piece circulated, it sparked heated discussion surrounding the tradwife lifestyle, suggesting among critics that Hannah’s life may not be as fulfilling as it appears on social media. Some readers were also unsettled by her comments about childbirth and her husband’s role in their traditional family dynamic.

When asked if the couple plans their pregnancies, Daniel answered first, saying, “No.” Hannah added it is a “matter of prayer” for her, after which Daniel interjected: “But for whatever reason it’s exactly nine months [after a baby] that she’s ready for the next one.”

“It’s definitely a matter of prayer,” she said again. Daniel added, “It’s a matter of prayer but somehow it’s exactly nine months."

What have they said about the backlash?

Eleven days after the profile was published, Hannah posted a video on Instagram addressing the negative opinions she's faced since the article, saying that her portrayal of being "oppressed" with Daniel "being the culprit" could not be "further from the truth.”

“We thought the interview went really well,” she said. “We were taken [aback] however, when we saw the printed article — which shocked us, and shocked the world by it being an attack on my family and my marriage.”

The influencer added that nothing she or Daniel said to the reporter implied she was oppressed, leading to Hannah believing that the article's narrative was "predetermined" before the interview.

She went on to reiterate that for her and Daniel, the priorities are "God and family," and that the "greatest day of [her] life" was marrying her husband.

In a follow-up post uploaded hours later, Hannah wrote in that caption that she wanted to tell her family's story in her "own words," with a link in her bio to Ballerina Farm's "About Us" page. In the post, Hannah addressed many of the polarizing details of the article (giving up dance, the immediacy of her marriage and her rapidly expanding family).

Hannah wrote that marrying Daniel just months after meeting him was "the best decision" she ever made. The influencer noted that she and Daniel had both always wanted big families, "so [they] left it in God’s hands."

"I thought he would want me to finish school before sending me our firstborn Henry," she added. "We plan, God laughs."