So I realize I write a LOT about Ballerina Farm - maybe too much for some people’s taste! But for the past few years, the BF Instagram account has been a lightning rod for me to work through ideas about whiteness, idealized motherhood, gender, and domesticity. When I first started paying attention to BF, Hannah only had 100 or so thousand followers, and now she has nearly 10 million. It’s wild. And when I first started following her, I was very much personally invested. I felt feelings! Now, though, my interest is so much more removed, so much more professionally curious about what analysis of the BF universe can reveal about bigger issues.
So I want to know - who do you follow online that’s well past due for a deep dive? Which accounts should I be researching in order to better understand something complicated about America, feminism, or even sourdough?
yes! I think a lot about the influencers that try to be more 'real' and show the 'real' side to parenting but are also selling stuff and I wonder how much is too much in sharing. BLF have also in recent months shifted to not showing the children's faces and sharing less about them in general, which is interesting! They have been quite open about 'figuring things out' and I do identify with a lot of their struggles while being puzzled by others.
The transition from being a reliable, credentialed source of knowledge to selling merch boggles my mind! (For those who are unfamiliar, Karrie is a RN and was a mother/baby nurse but AFAIK hasn't worked since early pandemic.) My daughter is a week younger than Teddy and Karrie's instagram was such an integral resource for me in the early days of infant care and breastfeeding. I stopped following her once I "aged out" of her advice and recently checked in and like... ma'am...
Yes! They’re selling a much more realistic vision of motherhood but it’s still curated and there are still interesting choices being made (eg at first they still showed their children’s faces but they moved away from that once their following grew). They seem to be to be coming from a good place and behaving as ethically as they can, but their are still selling something.
I don’t know! She’s a Dallas gazillionaire who decorates her home for each holiday in completely over the top ways. Her husband has a helicopter. They regularly go on days long fasts that they insist are not about weight loss. Several of their kids and spouses also have huge followings.
This one might be niche, but Kelly LeVeque, celebrity nutrionist and now very glamorous mom of three. I struggle with her, because I have found a lot of her advice super useful over the years and good counterprogamming during the era of "ALWAYS EAT LESS" but increasingly I'm seeing more Huberman-y stuff creeping in, stuff about balancing hormones, extreme anti-sugar attitudes particularly for kids, and of course an interview with Gwyneth's guy Dr. Will Cole. I can easily look at a Ballerina Farm and be like "ABSOLUTELY NOT" but I struggle with some of this in between content which is partially helpful (TBH we all feel better if we eat plenty of protein, fat, fiber & greens), but it can be slippery when these folks move further into the conspirituality pipeline and/or complete control over their kids' lives/diets/activities/etc. Anyway, help me with my Kelly issues! https://www.instagram.com/bewellbykelly/
WILD! And it also makes me wonder if/how the "Huberman Husbands" will back off of the nonsense versus how much of what he hath wrought has just crept its way into the women's health world. He was an other in betweener for a lot of folks because he ostensibly had the right credentials and spoke sciencey words, but was also clearly about traditional gender roles and....Joe Rogan. Also what do we do when the stuff these folks create gets separated from the original (toxic, male) creator and then gets dressed up in cute, palatable Momfluenced form? I'm thinking about the Yoga to QAnon pipeline, conspirituality
I still remembering someone at work mentioning her and one of her first posts I saw made me have some very big feelings about idealized motherhood- a seemingly innocent post after having a baby said something along the lines of “never been so tired or so happy” that felt like twisting the knife for those experiencing PPD
Tara Moni , Arielle Charnas - the intersection of fashion and mothering as it relates to consumerism and looking a certain way. Also , maybe a look at the positive side ? I Love accounts like Emily oster and Lucie Fink and momwell - I think they are the positive side of it and it might be fun to do a deep dive on that end of it!
I have been wondering about Shea McGee - both a design and mom influencer, I guess? Ok, there is the company. There is the husband (who always seems a bit silly like Hogfather guy even though he does all the finances). But she is clearly earning a lot of money, she is the brand, she works hard and creates a lot of social media content. Her kids were in the show and on her social media feed. But those kids are always so perfectly put together. Their rooms, which she showed on the YouTube channel, are too clean for a kid’s room and there are like…no toys etc? It doesn’t look like child would like this kind of space (but who knows) Shea seems like a nice person though but I wonder how everything is SO CLEAN (and beige) with three kids.
riiiiiight - very magnolia homes adjacent, right? I think there's definitely an essay I need to write about the intersection of motherhood and home design!
She's not a mom, but I am fascinated by Campbell (Pookie) Puckett and her husband Jett. There's something charming, but also unsettling about their relationship
Yes to the Jordan Ferney universe! I love that you centered it with her even though Design Mom is probably the most recognizable, ha. They've become pretty conspicuous and wealthy in their influencer roles, and thus definitely overdue for a deep dive!!
sarah therese... 30 with five kids, homeschools, home makes, extremely religious and anti-choice. i genuinely don't know why i'm fascinated but i can't look away.
Rachel Parcell (and her sisters) - started years ago as a typical Mormon mommy wife following the success of Love Taza and co, launched her fashion line, but has been posting less lately and seemingly not trying to "sell" her stuff quite as hard, basically just does Chanel unboxing videos now. Wonder what's going on.
Also, a newer one: Brooke Raybould - if Tim Ferris were a trad wife. She has 4 little kids, homeschools, and seeks to optimize every aspect of her life/minute of her day (wakes up at 5am to drink lemon water and read, then work out, do cold plunge, makes every bed in the house/puts on a full face of makeup/outfits. does strange diets suggested by her husband).
Rachel Brathen (@yogagirl) and Kathleen Ashmore (@kancancook). The yoga girl evolution from fairly normy yoga pretty hippie girl to back-to-the-land so left she’s almost right mama bear is interesting. Kat is delightful, but the collagen shilling and the shameless zero guilt capitalism undermine her mom-friend vibe?
Recently saw Savannah LaBrant post that they bought a farm. Such a shift from the lifestyle she was promoting previously. My first thought was "tradwife/farming life trend is profitable" so she's on it? It made me wonder if she's at the beginning of BF transition. Ha. Your take would be great.
Dani Austin - owns a seemingly pretty successful scalp care brand, almost definitely got a secret unacknowledged boob job recently, she and her husband said publicly one time that their values are that its grandparents' job to raise their kids. There's an intersecting race/culture thing happening (they are hispanic) that I feel like their followers are weird about
Laura Beverlin - has very publicly struggled with infertility, owns farm animals. Her subreddit is MEAN and accuses her of lying about some of the infertility logistics
yes on Dani Austin. There is so much to unpack there. Made it sound like she has ppd after her second child but they did not discuss it at the time. The boob job, the chin/nose job but then will show her pimples like eh, everyone can relate to this....
She's awful. So much to say about her but the fact that she included the hashtag #GeorgeFloyd in her 2020 baby announcement for no reason other than engagement pretty much sums her up.
Mallory Goldman - very likable 20 something fashion influencer with endless money - she is personally v sweet and yet I feel so many things about people’s access to endless cash
Not sure if she counts since she primarily does comedy videos vs selling things, but Emily Morrow (really very crunchy on Instagram).
The algorithm has stopped serving her to me, and I'm ok with that. She's added her husband, who I don't really care to see (lol) to most videos. The bloom came off the rose for me when she did an anti vax video parodying a doctor's office voicemail. I commented on it that I thought the account was comedy/parody and I was swiftly corrected by her followers.
I cannot look away from this one. I am at turns entertained and infuriated. I like her comedy style. But the comments...I had to take a break after the moon landing one.
@nurturingnovas for a momfluencer/spiritual hippy business woman who successfully launches a million different crazy products and ideas. I’m obsessed and have followed her for years.
Late to this, but mildly obsessed with the trad wife -> trad mom -> homestead -> COLLAGEN POWDER of it all around the extended Wilson Family Homestead/Savannah LaBrant universes
When I was still on instagram I got a lot of Australian momfluencer content and I’d be so curious to hear more about their similar but different version, especially Chloe from Life with Beans https://www.instagram.com/chloeandbeans/?hl=en
I'm not sure if they would completely qualify as a momfluencer, but some of the Beachbody coaches are momfluencer-adjacent. Plus, they're in a MLM which is always fascinating. An Amy Bailey deep-dive is much-needed. Just Google her and her husband, Storm...
Stacy Martino and relationship development. I love her but wondering if I’m missing something . She’s on FB and Instagram and does podcasts with her husband Paul as well as runs paid classes.
GOTTA be Nara Smith. I don't know why, but I can't stop watching her videos. I think it's because she doesn't act like she's in on the joke, but she's gotta be in on the joke to some degree. One of my favorites was "my toddlers were hungry for grilled cheese" and she proceeds to bake the bread and MAKE THE CHEESE for the grilled cheeses 😆 like be serious!
The way she interacts with her commenters also makes me think she has a sense of humor about it, but she's so deadly serious in her videos! It's fascinating.
I think this is part of why she drives ppl nuts - it's how deadly serious she seems, while doing patently absurd things like making cereal from scratch while dressed to the nines.
This doesn't answer your question and it may have been discussed in other posts. But - is that picture real? A ballerina on a farm with a pig on a beef label? The font, the woman dressed like a child and holding a bucket for some reason (to catch the blood when they slaughter the cow?), a pig instead of a cow - everything is so disconcerting.
It's kind of the concept of time as a commodity - she has *time* to make grilled cheeses from literal scratch (homemade sourdough bread, homemade cheese even). Only people with unlimited resources (time and money) would be able to do that... we have to assume she has a nanny and/or lots of help to allow for all this time she spends cooking, but it's never showed or talked about how that help enables her to spend her days making every element of her family's meals from scratch - she just acts like this is a thing she does but never shares any info on the logistics that would make it possible.
ALSO her husband is a model from a family of mormon models who had some fame a while back, so the mormonism is in the background but not up front; there's serious "what about the trad dad" stuff here, like with hog dad https://www.gq.com/story/lucky-blue-social-media-sensation
And you never see the kids while she is cooking - even Ballerina Farm has her kids all running around or helping while she's making sourdough every day. I'm sure she has help too, but it's at least portrayed as something she does *with* her children, whereas Nara is doing it (seemingly) as an activity separate from her children, which then begets the feeling of cooking from scratch as a luxury that is only attainable with extra resources (time and money).
My problem with this take is in all these videos she only has two kids and her husband is also a model/influencer who is always home. unlike Hog Dad who is “working on the farm all day” who’s to say Nara’s husband isn’t watching their 2 kids while she cooks (i would actually call it working since she is filming/making content that makes them money)
The youth is definitely a factor - you don't normally see content like hers from very young women, or if you do, they aren't married with three kids. Her voice narration is another thing for me - it's sorta ASMR-adjacent and way more relaxed than any young mom's voice should sound. It's just such an interesting combination of the influencer plus the content plus the lifestyle (that we don't really see, as mentioned above).
What about the Go Clean Co lady? She got big at the beginning of the pandemic for her "tough love" approach to disinfecting your home, including using demonized cleaning chemicals like bleach. As she has grown her brand/business she's leaned into Amazon affiliate stuff and sponsored posts. Occasionally she'll throw in wellness/natural language when a product has that marketing, which I find surprising given her origins
I am not on instagram, so I'd very much like to get a critical take on what's happening there. I feel that your hyper focus on Ballerina Farm is a bit trollish though. It's time to move on.
This comment section is full of such good info! Here to 2nd that I can’t look away from Rudy Jude. While her parenting / cute activities / lifestyle isn’t something I’d ever try to recreate, I still WANT to be as cool as her. And ditto for the parenting accounts — I also followed Karrie Locher closely, I bought some of her breastfeeding training videos, and saw her as a real expert. The shift to merch is really interesting and a little sad to me.
One other thought generally, is more like the evolution of a lot of these influencers as they grow their following. The fine line between selling their lifestyle and then selling products and then selling opinions and ways of thinking. You generally touch on this all the time but I’d love more of this in a deep dive. Is there a pattern?! Where’s the line between this and the way cults influence beliefs? (Obviously many differences - but I’d be curious about this!)
UGH I KNOW ALEXA - re: RJ. Her coolness is really off the charts. And yes! Love the way you phrased how the product shifts as they grow influence! and absolutely worth more of a deliberate analysis.
@drcourtneykahla (granola chiropractor) and @wildflora.wellness (gained followers by being a leader in Young Living and now talks a lot about beef liver supplements).
I would LOVE a dive into Courtney Kahla. She's completely fascinating - Trump supporter, super crunchy (coffee enemas?! doesn't believe in germ theory?), very conservative religious chiropractor who runs her own clinic, from all appearances extremely loving mom to her one preschool-aged child (who she recently decided to stop showing on her socials). She has been very open about her deep sadness about dealing with secondary infertility and in the last few months has also revealed that her husband is an alcoholic who has been abusive to her in multiple ways and recently relapsed from sobriety (though she is apparently committed to staying with him, which makes me sad). I disagree with almost every single one of her beliefs and I keep coming back to her account (and read her newsletter) because she strikes me as a deeply human person in a way a lot of other influencers don't - she has been very vulnerable in things she's shared and I hope things get better for her (and that she changes her mind about...many things).
Oh damn, I didn't know about the more recent updates. I stopped following during COVID because I didn't find joy in following her. Instead, I was annoyed and angered by some of her stances. That really bums me out about her husband.
oh wow i haven't been keeping up with her so didn't know all of these updates! yeah she has such a warm online presence - it makes all of her beliefs that much harder to believe for me?
Sorry haven’t read others suggestions so apologies if a repeat but Brooke Raybould. She adopts this kind of productivity-bro language and shtick to talk about “winning motherhood” - she has 4 boys and homeschools. I think she has a nanny possibly or other childcare who is never mentioned tho not sure. Anyway- love your work!
I think I'd like to see a dive into other types of 'momfluencers' like Big little Feelings ladies or mothercould.
ah like parenting influencers?
I have SO many questions about Karrie Locher in particular
yes! I think a lot about the influencers that try to be more 'real' and show the 'real' side to parenting but are also selling stuff and I wonder how much is too much in sharing. BLF have also in recent months shifted to not showing the children's faces and sharing less about them in general, which is interesting! They have been quite open about 'figuring things out' and I do identify with a lot of their struggles while being puzzled by others.
Yeah, I agree re: BLF. I almost feel like they've gone so far in the direction of being "real" that it actually comes off as almost performative?
YES!! And I also have many questions about Karrie.
The transition from being a reliable, credentialed source of knowledge to selling merch boggles my mind! (For those who are unfamiliar, Karrie is a RN and was a mother/baby nurse but AFAIK hasn't worked since early pandemic.) My daughter is a week younger than Teddy and Karrie's instagram was such an integral resource for me in the early days of infant care and breastfeeding. I stopped following her once I "aged out" of her advice and recently checked in and like... ma'am...
Same! My son is 2 months younger than Teddy and I found her resources to be SO HELPFUL. But yeah... definitively a big shift in content.
oh god YES pls!
PLEASE do a Karrie Locher deep dive. PLEASE PLEASE
Yes! They’re selling a much more realistic vision of motherhood but it’s still curated and there are still interesting choices being made (eg at first they still showed their children’s faces but they moved away from that once their following grew). They seem to be to be coming from a good place and behaving as ethically as they can, but their are still selling something.
bekah, rudy jude
YES RUDY JUDE
Another vote for Rudy Jude!!!
Turtle Creek Lane and the whole TCL family of influencers
Yes! Great call
she's the one that had the whole vibrator thing a while back, right?
I don’t know! She’s a Dallas gazillionaire who decorates her home for each holiday in completely over the top ways. Her husband has a helicopter. They regularly go on days long fasts that they insist are not about weight loss. Several of their kids and spouses also have huge followings.
lol "her husband has a helicopter" NATURALLY
They currently fly the helicopter to check on a cat that showed up on their ranch.
You aren’t ready!!!
This one might be niche, but Kelly LeVeque, celebrity nutrionist and now very glamorous mom of three. I struggle with her, because I have found a lot of her advice super useful over the years and good counterprogamming during the era of "ALWAYS EAT LESS" but increasingly I'm seeing more Huberman-y stuff creeping in, stuff about balancing hormones, extreme anti-sugar attitudes particularly for kids, and of course an interview with Gwyneth's guy Dr. Will Cole. I can easily look at a Ballerina Farm and be like "ABSOLUTELY NOT" but I struggle with some of this in between content which is partially helpful (TBH we all feel better if we eat plenty of protein, fat, fiber & greens), but it can be slippery when these folks move further into the conspirituality pipeline and/or complete control over their kids' lives/diets/activities/etc. Anyway, help me with my Kelly issues! https://www.instagram.com/bewellbykelly/
LOVE this point - the in between folks are the hardest for me too!
possibly unrelated, but did you read the recent huberman piece in new york mag? wild.
WILD! And it also makes me wonder if/how the "Huberman Husbands" will back off of the nonsense versus how much of what he hath wrought has just crept its way into the women's health world. He was an other in betweener for a lot of folks because he ostensibly had the right credentials and spoke sciencey words, but was also clearly about traditional gender roles and....Joe Rogan. Also what do we do when the stuff these folks create gets separated from the original (toxic, male) creator and then gets dressed up in cute, palatable Momfluenced form? I'm thinking about the Yoga to QAnon pipeline, conspirituality
https://www.thedailybeast.com/meet-the-andrew-huberman-husbands-and-their-long-suffering-wives
oooooooh this is VERY interesting
Julia Berolzheimer
Megan Stokes
Liz Adams
JULIA BEROLZHEIMER! talk about whiteness, gender, idealized everything. also weird husband stuff!
oh yes yes yes - forgot about her!!
I still remembering someone at work mentioning her and one of her first posts I saw made me have some very big feelings about idealized motherhood- a seemingly innocent post after having a baby said something along the lines of “never been so tired or so happy” that felt like twisting the knife for those experiencing PPD
Also +1 for Megan Stokes
Tara Moni , Arielle Charnas - the intersection of fashion and mothering as it relates to consumerism and looking a certain way. Also , maybe a look at the positive side ? I Love accounts like Emily oster and Lucie Fink and momwell - I think they are the positive side of it and it might be fun to do a deep dive on that end of it!
I have been wondering about Shea McGee - both a design and mom influencer, I guess? Ok, there is the company. There is the husband (who always seems a bit silly like Hogfather guy even though he does all the finances). But she is clearly earning a lot of money, she is the brand, she works hard and creates a lot of social media content. Her kids were in the show and on her social media feed. But those kids are always so perfectly put together. Their rooms, which she showed on the YouTube channel, are too clean for a kid’s room and there are like…no toys etc? It doesn’t look like child would like this kind of space (but who knows) Shea seems like a nice person though but I wonder how everything is SO CLEAN (and beige) with three kids.
riiiiiight - very magnolia homes adjacent, right? I think there's definitely an essay I need to write about the intersection of motherhood and home design!
Also the McGees are active Mormons. Who would have guessed 🥴
So clean so clean. Beige. Flowers. The kids fit into the decor. Where is their personality?
Lisa from Farmhouse on Boone
She's not a mom, but I am fascinated by Campbell (Pookie) Puckett and her husband Jett. There's something charming, but also unsettling about their relationship
wow "charming but unsettling" - instantly intrigued!
I am always looking for ink to be spilled about anyone in the family of the Jordan Ferney universe. Or Jen Gotch...
Yes to the Jordan Ferney universe! I love that you centered it with her even though Design Mom is probably the most recognizable, ha. They've become pretty conspicuous and wealthy in their influencer roles, and thus definitely overdue for a deep dive!!
Jen Gotch!
sarah therese... 30 with five kids, homeschools, home makes, extremely religious and anti-choice. i genuinely don't know why i'm fascinated but i can't look away.
Rachel Parcell (and her sisters) - started years ago as a typical Mormon mommy wife following the success of Love Taza and co, launched her fashion line, but has been posting less lately and seemingly not trying to "sell" her stuff quite as hard, basically just does Chanel unboxing videos now. Wonder what's going on.
Also, a newer one: Brooke Raybould - if Tim Ferris were a trad wife. She has 4 little kids, homeschools, and seeks to optimize every aspect of her life/minute of her day (wakes up at 5am to drink lemon water and read, then work out, do cold plunge, makes every bed in the house/puts on a full face of makeup/outfits. does strange diets suggested by her husband).
omg i wrote about her i think!
https://sarapetersen.substack.com/p/if-intentional-mediocrity-is-a-sin?utm_source=publication-search
I have been interested in Rachel's recent trajectory, as well!
Brooke's husband is terrible -- Senator John Cornyn's chief counsel and Josh Hawley's bestie.
eeeeeeee
Ew, I didn't know that! But not surprised he's a super Republican. Hawley is one of the most dangerous people in Congress.
Another vote for Brooke. Who takes the videos?? Does she bring her tripod everywhere?? I must know!
Rachel Brathen (@yogagirl) and Kathleen Ashmore (@kancancook). The yoga girl evolution from fairly normy yoga pretty hippie girl to back-to-the-land so left she’s almost right mama bear is interesting. Kat is delightful, but the collagen shilling and the shameless zero guilt capitalism undermine her mom-friend vibe?
Ooh yeah, the wellness to right wing pipeline…
Recently saw Savannah LaBrant post that they bought a farm. Such a shift from the lifestyle she was promoting previously. My first thought was "tradwife/farming life trend is profitable" so she's on it? It made me wonder if she's at the beginning of BF transition. Ha. Your take would be great.
Dani Austin - owns a seemingly pretty successful scalp care brand, almost definitely got a secret unacknowledged boob job recently, she and her husband said publicly one time that their values are that its grandparents' job to raise their kids. There's an intersecting race/culture thing happening (they are hispanic) that I feel like their followers are weird about
Laura Beverlin - has very publicly struggled with infertility, owns farm animals. Her subreddit is MEAN and accuses her of lying about some of the infertility logistics
yes on Dani Austin. There is so much to unpack there. Made it sound like she has ppd after her second child but they did not discuss it at the time. The boob job, the chin/nose job but then will show her pimples like eh, everyone can relate to this....
She's awful. So much to say about her but the fact that she included the hashtag #GeorgeFloyd in her 2020 baby announcement for no reason other than engagement pretty much sums her up.
whattttttttttt
Another vote for Farmhouse on Boone
@noellekovary
Mallory Goldman - very likable 20 something fashion influencer with endless money - she is personally v sweet and yet I feel so many things about people’s access to endless cash
hmmmmm YES
And the lack of acknowledgment of the money
for sure
This may date me but I am forever fascinated with the McKinney Mommy Mafia, esp queen bee Shay Shull, sister of former Bachelor Sean Shull.
yes! Not sure she is as queen bee as she was though. she seems to see lot less of her sweet, sweet friends
Not sure if she counts since she primarily does comedy videos vs selling things, but Emily Morrow (really very crunchy on Instagram).
The algorithm has stopped serving her to me, and I'm ok with that. She's added her husband, who I don't really care to see (lol) to most videos. The bloom came off the rose for me when she did an anti vax video parodying a doctor's office voicemail. I commented on it that I thought the account was comedy/parody and I was swiftly corrected by her followers.
I cannot look away from this one. I am at turns entertained and infuriated. I like her comedy style. But the comments...I had to take a break after the moon landing one.
oh man maybe a deep dive on the comments ALONE? i wrote about her once a year ago or so.....like about me not realizing it was a satire account.
Because the algothim stopped serving her to me, I missed that one (and am probably glad, lol).
Emily Vondy
Yes!!! Came here to say this!!!!
Not Mormon, but Audrey Roloff. She’s FASCINATING
I second this!!!
oh wow curious about the "marriage journals"
I can’t stop watching their cursed renovation.
looking now!
Rudy Jude- I know you covered Julie in your book but I’m still so interested.
I WILL NEVER NOT BE ha - i've written about my preoccupation a few times here!
@nurturingnovas for a momfluencer/spiritual hippy business woman who successfully launches a million different crazy products and ideas. I’m obsessed and have followed her for years.
Late to this, but mildly obsessed with the trad wife -> trad mom -> homestead -> COLLAGEN POWDER of it all around the extended Wilson Family Homestead/Savannah LaBrant universes
Tieghan Gerard/Half Baked Harvest and Kelly LeVeque (agree with all PP said)
When I was still on instagram I got a lot of Australian momfluencer content and I’d be so curious to hear more about their similar but different version, especially Chloe from Life with Beans https://www.instagram.com/chloeandbeans/?hl=en
She has ten kids and she’s like 31…
GOLLY
I'm not sure if they would completely qualify as a momfluencer, but some of the Beachbody coaches are momfluencer-adjacent. Plus, they're in a MLM which is always fascinating. An Amy Bailey deep-dive is much-needed. Just Google her and her husband, Storm...
oh boy STORM
Stacy Martino and relationship development. I love her but wondering if I’m missing something . She’s on FB and Instagram and does podcasts with her husband Paul as well as runs paid classes.
Sam Ozkural, she’s a YouTuber
So curious what happened with Love Taza…
AREN'T WE ALL!
Yes! Me too!
GOTTA be Nara Smith. I don't know why, but I can't stop watching her videos. I think it's because she doesn't act like she's in on the joke, but she's gotta be in on the joke to some degree. One of my favorites was "my toddlers were hungry for grilled cheese" and she proceeds to bake the bread and MAKE THE CHEESE for the grilled cheeses 😆 like be serious!
she MUST be in on the joke??
The way she interacts with her commenters also makes me think she has a sense of humor about it, but she's so deadly serious in her videos! It's fascinating.
I think this is part of why she drives ppl nuts - it's how deadly serious she seems, while doing patently absurd things like making cereal from scratch while dressed to the nines.
This doesn't answer your question and it may have been discussed in other posts. But - is that picture real? A ballerina on a farm with a pig on a beef label? The font, the woman dressed like a child and holding a bucket for some reason (to catch the blood when they slaughter the cow?), a pig instead of a cow - everything is so disconcerting.
all real lol
MCKINLI HATCH ARE YOU KIDDING?! There is only one answer!!! The MESS.
I DONT KNOW WHO THIS IS lol - looking now
For the love of god I will contribute to a guest post on this. I AM SO EXCITED TO WATCH YOU TAKE THIS JOURNEY.
lol lol lol
WHAT is that spelling!
wow, I just looked her up. hot mess express!
Nara Smith on TikTok
Say more! A few reporters have reached out to me about her but I'm struggling to see how/why she really lights people up!
It's kind of the concept of time as a commodity - she has *time* to make grilled cheeses from literal scratch (homemade sourdough bread, homemade cheese even). Only people with unlimited resources (time and money) would be able to do that... we have to assume she has a nanny and/or lots of help to allow for all this time she spends cooking, but it's never showed or talked about how that help enables her to spend her days making every element of her family's meals from scratch - she just acts like this is a thing she does but never shares any info on the logistics that would make it possible.
yes this is a great point!
ALSO her husband is a model from a family of mormon models who had some fame a while back, so the mormonism is in the background but not up front; there's serious "what about the trad dad" stuff here, like with hog dad https://www.gq.com/story/lucky-blue-social-media-sensation
And you never see the kids while she is cooking - even Ballerina Farm has her kids all running around or helping while she's making sourdough every day. I'm sure she has help too, but it's at least portrayed as something she does *with* her children, whereas Nara is doing it (seemingly) as an activity separate from her children, which then begets the feeling of cooking from scratch as a luxury that is only attainable with extra resources (time and money).
My problem with this take is in all these videos she only has two kids and her husband is also a model/influencer who is always home. unlike Hog Dad who is “working on the farm all day” who’s to say Nara’s husband isn’t watching their 2 kids while she cooks (i would actually call it working since she is filming/making content that makes them money)
right - i mean i guess the argument is for more transparency in general? or acknowledgement that what she's doing is work?
I would read several thousand words about the way Nara gingerly holds cooking utensils as if she is doing calligraphy and not mixing pancake batter.
bahahahaha excellent to know
Yes! There's something 'off' about her. Can't quite put my finger on it.
oh interesting! I guess I can't figure out why she drives people so bonkers? Like - is it the conspicuous consumption? The youth?
The youth is definitely a factor - you don't normally see content like hers from very young women, or if you do, they aren't married with three kids. Her voice narration is another thing for me - it's sorta ASMR-adjacent and way more relaxed than any young mom's voice should sound. It's just such an interesting combination of the influencer plus the content plus the lifestyle (that we don't really see, as mentioned above).
I guess her husband is a bit of a douche, that's one thing. She's gorgeous and definitely has a presence. She's a trad wife.
What about the Go Clean Co lady? She got big at the beginning of the pandemic for her "tough love" approach to disinfecting your home, including using demonized cleaning chemicals like bleach. As she has grown her brand/business she's leaned into Amazon affiliate stuff and sponsored posts. Occasionally she'll throw in wellness/natural language when a product has that marketing, which I find surprising given her origins
I am not on instagram, so I'd very much like to get a critical take on what's happening there. I feel that your hyper focus on Ballerina Farm is a bit trollish though. It's time to move on.
This comment section is full of such good info! Here to 2nd that I can’t look away from Rudy Jude. While her parenting / cute activities / lifestyle isn’t something I’d ever try to recreate, I still WANT to be as cool as her. And ditto for the parenting accounts — I also followed Karrie Locher closely, I bought some of her breastfeeding training videos, and saw her as a real expert. The shift to merch is really interesting and a little sad to me.
One other thought generally, is more like the evolution of a lot of these influencers as they grow their following. The fine line between selling their lifestyle and then selling products and then selling opinions and ways of thinking. You generally touch on this all the time but I’d love more of this in a deep dive. Is there a pattern?! Where’s the line between this and the way cults influence beliefs? (Obviously many differences - but I’d be curious about this!)
UGH I KNOW ALEXA - re: RJ. Her coolness is really off the charts. And yes! Love the way you phrased how the product shifts as they grow influence! and absolutely worth more of a deliberate analysis.
@drcourtneykahla (granola chiropractor) and @wildflora.wellness (gained followers by being a leader in Young Living and now talks a lot about beef liver supplements).
oh my gosh i've been low key obsessed with courtney kahla for YEARS! excellent call. don't know wildflora wellness though - checking now!
I would LOVE a dive into Courtney Kahla. She's completely fascinating - Trump supporter, super crunchy (coffee enemas?! doesn't believe in germ theory?), very conservative religious chiropractor who runs her own clinic, from all appearances extremely loving mom to her one preschool-aged child (who she recently decided to stop showing on her socials). She has been very open about her deep sadness about dealing with secondary infertility and in the last few months has also revealed that her husband is an alcoholic who has been abusive to her in multiple ways and recently relapsed from sobriety (though she is apparently committed to staying with him, which makes me sad). I disagree with almost every single one of her beliefs and I keep coming back to her account (and read her newsletter) because she strikes me as a deeply human person in a way a lot of other influencers don't - she has been very vulnerable in things she's shared and I hope things get better for her (and that she changes her mind about...many things).
Oh damn, I didn't know about the more recent updates. I stopped following during COVID because I didn't find joy in following her. Instead, I was annoyed and angered by some of her stances. That really bums me out about her husband.
oh wow i haven't been keeping up with her so didn't know all of these updates! yeah she has such a warm online presence - it makes all of her beliefs that much harder to believe for me?
A second ago I discovered americanfamilyroadtrip (JD & Britney), and now I’m beside myself. Vanlife meets eight children meets god meets chiropractic.
Sorry haven’t read others suggestions so apologies if a repeat but Brooke Raybould. She adopts this kind of productivity-bro language and shtick to talk about “winning motherhood” - she has 4 boys and homeschools. I think she has a nanny possibly or other childcare who is never mentioned tho not sure. Anyway- love your work!
yuppppp - i wrote this about the optimization of it all!
https://sarapetersen.substack.com/p/if-intentional-mediocrity-is-a-sin?utm_source=publication-search
Omg this is everything I could have hoped for. Thank you!!
Did anyone say @noellekovary on ig?
Posts about her unassisted home birth (free birth), proudly proclaiming that she never even had an ultrasound. So reckless.
Karrie Locher for sure!
I may have missed this, but more Nara Smith please!
What about Joanna Gaines? Have you deep dived (dove?) into her - and the Chip of it all - yet?
wrote about it a bit last week!
…I loved it and am hungry for more analysis!!
lol excellent point - me too. you've read Anne Helen Petersen's piece on them, right? SO GOOD
https://annehelen.substack.com/p/in-reality-tv-defined-by-renovation
How about Kelly Havens Stickle? I feel like her IG text can be very layered and speaks openly to her own challenges in being a trad wife.
oh i have! she's all over my book and in this piece
https://sarapetersen.substack.com/p/its-not-me-its-god?utm_source=publication-search
Mommy Farmer.
Nara Smith
oh mommy farmer's a new one for me!
yes! i wrote about the parody or not of it all a few months ago!
Would you be able to drop the name of the article?! I’m digging through the archives but can’t find!
oh yay! here's the piece
https://sarapetersen.substack.com/p/satirical-conformity