Every pronatalist dog whistle at once — and then some
Tradwife 2.0? A Cambridge post-grad plans a genetically-culled IVF pregnancy and C/S birth every year for a decade, with femtech, hormones, and custom diet back on the ranch. You can't make this up.
I’ve posted previously on the tradwife social media trend1 —enthusiastic young women promoting an an idyllic version of homemaking. Retro-fashionable and newly political, the concept brings strange bedfellows together: women who find joy in pregnancy and/or large families; those who see rural life as calmer; women who find traditional roles satisfying; those who see the 50s as the best days of America; those concerned with economic collapse from plummeting birth rates; and the darker forces of nativism and white nationalism.
This new article features self-described techno-Puritan tradcouple Simone and Malcolm Collins. The Collinses both previously worked in venture capital and technology sectors, and Simone previously served as the managing director for Dialog, a secretive invitation-only social club co-founded by investor and Silicone Valley provocateur Peter Thiel.
Inspired by Thiel, JD Vance, and the tech bros, the Collinses see themselves as avatars of a brave new tradwife tradition combining retro gender roles, ultra high tech, and some dizzying values jumps including an “I know better” attitude about science. Any women’s health provider reading about about Simone’s plans for an IVF pregnancy (with designer eggs) and a cesarean delivery every year for ten years will have at least raised eyebrows. After making a lifestyle look easy that very, very few could afford, they may also now be the Internet’s Most Hated Couple.
What’s it all about? With tradwife influencers, it’s an aesthetic as layered on a philosophy. The look is almost always white, often blond, and usually attractive. On the predictable slide to making it less ideology and more trendy fashion, here’s where you can get tradwife interior design, fabrics and decor, and one of many, many stores selling fashion that teases (traditional) body parts under thin, flowy cover (organic, of course). The Wall Street Journal no less featured “Utah hair”—reportedly the preferred WH look—not once, but twice. LDS Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah may not be entertained.
In the months before the election, tradwife coverage really picked up after this provocative July 2024 article in The Times of London, quickly followed by this one. Both focused on Ballerina Farm’s Daniel and Hannah Neeleman and their eight children in rural Utah. Daniel’s father founded JetBlue; Hannah—arguably the queen of tradwives—has over 10M followers on social media. She is a ballerina trained at the elite Julliard School, and a Mrs. American winner who competed in the Mrs. World pageant 12 days after the birth of her 8th child. (Remaining female eyebrows rise.) As you might imagine, reactions were swift. Like the Collinses, the Neelemans have inherited family wealth and are clearly far better off financially than today’s typical Gen Z or Millennial couple; these are influencers who have a lot more than a dream going for them.
I’d like to talk to these women in 20 years, to see how many remain happy—and how many find themselves replaced by a newer, fresher model, without a career or savings to fall back on.
For young tradwives who have a handle on their values, lives and finances, life can remain satisfying. So far, research says both women who stay home and women who have careers are satisfied. For the millions of followers entranced more by the aesthetic, homelife and look—not so committed to the philosophy—things may not go well, as the Boomer experience shows. While Boomer women broke glass ceilings, 55% chose to stay in the home. Since then, Boomers set record divorce rates and continue to do so even now, whether they chose more traditional roles or were two-career couples. And we now know that of Boomers who divorced, women are far more likely to be reduced to poverty than men.
Let’s hope today’s tradwives are following that as well.
See below2 for more articles on Hannah and the tradwife concept in general.
Why it’s a trend, not a movement:’ I was privileged to study and live in Utah as a non-LDS [non-Mormon] woman for 27 great years, and delivered hundreds of babies there early in my career as a certified nurse-midwife and women’s health nurse practitioner before ‘going to the dark side’ of health system administration and international consulting. I knew, and helped deliver, many wonderful LDS women and met incredible, dedicated parents; what I learned about parenting there I likely never would have seen elsewhere.
Some of those women might identify now as tradwives, but not all or even many. Most were urban, and contributed extensively outside the home, at church, work, or in the community. Very large families weren’t even dominant in Utah back then when the average family size was 4.2 children; very large families were predominantly among polygamists. Today the average number of children in Utah families is 1.9 children, below the 2.1 replacement rate. Like other states, the nation, and many other countries, Utah's fertility rate has declined dramatically, by 42.2% in the last 50 years. For better or worse, both in Utah an nationally, family size movement is decidedly downward, not upward. Read more here.
More recent media coverage on the tradwife trend:
What is a tradwife? All about the controversial lifestyle — and why it's having a viral moment — People, July 2024
Perspective: The real reason for Ballerina Farm’s popularity — Deseret News [owned by LDS Church], Salt Lake City, Aug 2024
A harrowing memoir that tradwife fans need to read — Washington Post, Aug 2024
Ballerina Farm and the problem with ‘choice’: How the debate is dividing LDS women — Salt Lake Tribune [the non-LDS Utah newspaper], Aug 2024
Opinion: What the Ballerina Farm following tells us about the economy — Deseret News, Sept 2024
2024 was the year of Mormon women — Washington Post, Dec 2024
Tycoon or tradwife? The woman behind Ballerina Farm makes her own path —New York Times, Dec 2024
Ballerina Farm family leaves Utah—temporarily—for Ireland [for Irish culinary school] — Salt Lake Tribune, Jan 2025