Mormon Mommy Bloggers 2: Ballerina Farms Boogaloo

Since everyone is giving their thoughts on Ballerina Farms, and Mormonism by extension, let me step up to the mic. Especially because I'm an LDS woman that everyone seems to think they're experts on now.

I'm so tired of having to answer for the choices of other LDS women I don't know. I'm tired of them speaking for me. I'm tired of them making spectacles of their choices at the expense of other women, especially when they have so much wealth and privilege to be who they are. I'm tired of their "brand" being something I have to answer for as an LDS women.

Hannah Neeleman is nothing like the rest of us. She's nothing like most of us.

She's no different than every other LDS Mommy blogger who has been exploiting her kids for content in our community since the Aughties. She's not unique.

She was quoted in The Times article as saying she wants other people to have what she has? She thinks that's even a feasible option for the vast majority of LDS women?

Who's buying the land? The livestock? And everything that goes with it?

Not me. Not any other LDS woman I know.

There are so many incredible, important things that passionate LDS women do to serve their communities. But because they don't look like her and have her money to create the platform she has, you'll never know their names.

Did people forget that being a social media influencer is a pay-to-play system at this point? Y'all think she did anything differently?

She is a caricature of femininity that is a total fantasy being sold to y'all as part of an agenda to fund her lifestyle.

I can list off so many other influencers like her in our community who have come and gone from making all the same choices and mistakes that she's currently making. Knock-off Ree Drummond doesn't even compare to some of the other LDS creators in her genre. If you want someone who broke this mold, go look up Stephanie Nielson of NieNie Dialogues. She survived a plane crash that permanently altered her appearance and had to find self-worth outside of traditional beauty standards. I never cared much for her content either, but she at least has something more interesting to say than "I'm pretty and rich and have a lot of kids." And that's before we even touch the totally valid criticisms of Daniel Neeleman and how poorly he treats his wife on camera.

I don't know if anyone walked him through the Mormon Mommy Blogger formula, but a necessary part of it is wish fulfillment for the audience, including a doting and respectful husband who would never dream of embarrassing or humiliating his wife. It's supposed to be an exercise in generating envy for everything his wife gets from being a stay-at-home mother—not what it's costing her because of him. That seems to be their only unique contribution to the genre, which is not the Mormon Mommy Blogger recipe for success. That's Shaycarl. You want to talk about the saddest "Where are they now?" Google search I just did to see if they're even still married. That tea is stone cold now. Nevertheless, it's still more interesting than watching a woman dancing ballet in a cow pasture (rather than at Juilliard) because her husband doesn't prioritize or respect her.

But I digress.

The press wants someone truly interesting to talk to? I can get them in contact with Artisans for Hope, a charity being run by LDS women in Idaho. They teach sewing and crafting skills to refugees, helping them become financially self-reliant in a new country. I can introduce them to the real work the bipartisan LDS community is doing to settle refugees all over Boise.

But no. Let's all have the same tired, ignorant conversation we've been having about Mommy bloggers since 2009. Because it was never about Hannah Neeleman. That's the sad thing she doesn't seem to realize.

People are only interested in talking about LDS women to make us look like indoctrinated freak shows. It's a very old form of misogyny that has been around since the 1840s.

The press has lifted her up specifically to make her a spectacle to the rest of the world, to laugh at her. And it's the dumbest thing in the world, I'm tired of seeing it, and tired of watching the public fall for it again and again.