LAS VEGAS – “I am still bleeding a little,” Hannah Neeleman said.
She was sitting in front of a glowing ring light in a Las Vegas hotel room, cradling a newborn, as a make-up artist hovered close by, eyeshadow brush in hand.
Two weeks after giving birth to her eighth child, Neeleman, 33, said she no longer needed to wear post-partum diapers.
That was convenient, since she was about to take part in the swimsuit round of the Mrs World beauty pageant, representing the United States in the annual competition for married women from around the globe.
“A lot of us have kids, and I don’t think there’s any shame in showing I just had a baby,” she said. “Like, I’m not going to have a perfectly flat stomach.”
The beauty team draped a blanket over the infant, Flora Jo. “She’s breathed in a lot of hair spray,” she joked, “but other than that, she’s stayed safe.”
Neeleman, a Juilliard-trained former ballerina, is known more as a social media star than a pageant queen.
Online, she goes by the name Ballerina Farm, and millions of people watch her almost daily videos depicting her life in the countryside about 50km from Salt Lake City, Utah, in the US.
In 2021, the “mumfluencer” had just over 200,000 Instagram followers.
By Jan 21, 2024, the day of the pageant, the count had surged to nine million, who regularly tune in to watch her milking her cow, Tulip, and baking sourdough bread in a vintage green stove she found on Craigslist and named Agnes.
The brand – and Ballerina Farm is as much a brand as it is a person – is wholesome and bucolic.
In addition to being the star of this social media show, Neeleman lists herself as Ballerina Farm’s founder and chief executive officer.
There is no cake she cannot bake, no number of children or livestock she cannot handle. Her husband, Daniel, makes cameos as the gourmand who happily wolfs down whatever she cooks.
A member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she occasionally references her faith, but her posts are not overtly religious. Neither does she weigh in on political candidates or the issues of the day.
Her TikTok and Instagram work is characterised by a can-do attitude, presenting a woman who is not afraid to roll up her sleeves and get her hands dirty on the farm – and then take part in a beauty pageant.
After Neeleman was crowned Mrs American last summer, she went viral in conservative circles because of the answer she gave onstage to a question about female empowerment.
“After I hold that newborn baby in my arms,” she said, “the feeling of motherhood and bringing them to the earth is the most empowering feeling I have ever felt.”
While some of her online fans praised her decision to compete, hailing her as a supermum, others questioned whether she was setting an unreasonable standard for other post-partum women, or if it was unwise to take a newborn on an airplane and into a crowded casino.
“A pageant is not like I’m running a marathon,” Neeleman said. “I’m literally in a chair, getting pampered, mostly.”
She made it to the next round, but not much beyond that. After her name was not among those called to progress to the top six, Flora Jo began to cry, as if on cue.
Mrs Germany ended up winning the crown. The 37 contestants, including Neeleman, swarmed the pageant queen in a giant, standing hug. Family members and fans stormed the stage to take photos.
After a while, Neeleman slipped away from the sequins and wefies. It was time to breastfeed. NYTIMES
