By Hannah Gebhardt
Hannah Neeleman, better known to the social world as @ballerinafarm, and her husband Daniel have risen back into the limelight of mainstream media after playing host to a Sunday Times reporter Megan Agnew, whose representation of the former Juilliard ballerina and mother has received much deserved backlash.
Agnew released the interview of her time spent with the Neeleman family on their farm, of which Hannah Neeleman spoke out about on social media saying,
“A couple of weeks ago we had a reporter come into our home to learn more about our family and business. We thought the interview went really well, very similar to the dozens of interviews we have done in recent memory. We were taken back, however when we saw the printed article which shocked us, and shocked the world by being an attack on our family and our marriage, portraying me as oppressed with my husband as the culprit this couldn’t be further from the truth.”
But while harping feminists and “boss ladies” have taken it upon themselves to call for the release of Hannah Neeleman from her husband’s supposed “oppression” over her, we are calling for the defense of Neeleman against those who feel the need to wipe away the beautiful life she and her husband have made for themselves.
Sacrificial & Simplistic Living
It is no mystery to her millions of followers that Hannah Neeleman was a Juilliard trained ballerina and current reigning pageant queen. But the glamor and prestige does not shine nearly as bright as the sacrifice that Neeleman has made to raise a family. While modern day feminism attempts to take women out of the home and away from motherhood, Neeleman has embraced ditching the working life for a life of working in the home. And this homesteading ballerina seems to be far from oppressed, or shattered by broken dreams. Rather, Hannah Neeleman is the epitome of an athlete remaining an athlete no matter where they are as she takes to regularly posting gorgeous shots twirling amidst the mountainous plains of Utah.
You Scream, I Scream, What Woman Wouldn’t Scream for This Real Life Dream
But Neeleman’s motherhood is not simply secluded to her home for the sake of social media followers. The Times pointedly chose to display an image of Neeleman, backstage at a pageant, breastfeeding one of her children in a sad attempt to further paint her “oppression.” What The Times has failed to realize is what a strong picture of devotion and class is portrayed through the beauty queen’s devotion to motherhood and her art, all of which her loving husband has stood firmly beside her through. I mean, what screams Barbie more than wearing sparkling gowns and heels alongside your real life Ken & Co.
Faith, Family, and Kids
The Times also wasted no time attacking Daniel Neeleman for his pursuit of his now wife, with the internet referring to him as creepy and stalking. According to the interview, Daniel had met Hannah while at a basketball game with friends. The ballerina had her sights set on New York, but Daniel’s sights were set on her. After pulling strings with his father’s airline, JetBlue, he secured a seat next to the blonde beauty and the rest was history.
Far from creepy, Daniel’s pursuit of Hannah is straight out of your favorite early 2000’s rom-com. In a society that calls for men to be weak and embracing of the feminist mantra, Daniel Neeleman has us reflecting back to a time of chivalry and pining.
It comes as no surprise that Agnew’s interview reeks with disdain as she talks about the Neeleman’s children. Of a small barn on the family’s farm Agnew writes, “The only space earmarked to be Neeleman’s own — a small barn she wanted to convert into a ballet studio — ended up becoming the kids’ schoolroom.” Further describing her experience in the home, she says, “sitting at the table surrounded by an ever-changing number of children. One is clattering a can opener next to my tape recorder, another is pulling a whole roast chicken from the Aga, three more gather around it with forks, eating it from the pan. Another spills a pail of milk over the floor. We have half an hour to talk before Neeleman has to take some of them to a ballet class.”
The only point Agnew seems to expound on here is her clear disdain for children and family life. Yet this language is not surprising when viewed at large from the feminist perspective gripping culture today, which calls for abortion, birth control, and the destruction of the nuclear family.
Sighted as “a hammer blow for feminism,” Hannah Neeleman lives up to the title in all its fullness. And while the Mormon faith the family embraces is certainly a far cry from Christianity, there is still much to be gleaned through the roles of wife, mother, ballerina, pageant queen, and homesteader, that Hannah Neeleman dons. The embodiment of true womanhood in a perfectly wrapped package, she has inspired a generation of young girls to break free of the socialistic mold of modern womanhood to embrace the liberation found in faith, family and freedom.
Hannah Gebhardt is founder of The Edifier, a writer for Lifeway Christian Ministries, and a columnist at the Standing for Freedom Center at Liberty University. She can be found on Instagram @hannah.gebhardt.