Mormon Moms: Unpacking a national obsession
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Why are Mormon women gaining popularity on social media?
Hello, hello. I'm Brittany Luce, and you're listening to It's Been a Minute from NPR, a show about what's going on in culture and why it doesn't happen by accident. I gotta say, I am kind of obsessed with Mormons. And I'm not alone. The Church of Latter-day Saints has been a source of public fascination for years. There's the hit musical, The Book of Mormon, HBO's Big Love, about a Mormon fundamentalist family that practices polygamy, and, of course, former presidential candidate Mitt Romney. But lately, there's been an influx of content around a specific part of the Mormon church. It's women. And people have been eating it. This year, Mormon women have been everywhere. They are dominating reality TV on Hulu's The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.
Do you think I'm a bad person for those mistakes that I did? I don't think you're a bad person. I just think that you've done a lot of bad things.
And two of the biggest trad wife influencers on TikTok are Mormon. Nara Smith.
My toddler stumbled into my room this morning asking for cereal for breakfast. So I caved and just made her some.
and Hannah Nealman, better known by her handle, Ballerina Farm. Today, we're making some Turkish eggs. Hannah is a former Juilliard-trained dancer turned TikTok influencer, and she got insanely popular. I'm talking 10 million Instagram followers and even the stamp of approval from the Martha Stewart, all by making little bite-sized videos about how she raises her eight kids on the prairie in Utah.
Who are the key influencers in the Mormon mommy culture?
You guys want to go get eggs with your brothers? So every day the kids have to gather eggs.
Me?
Those needs a project. But all this fame, it's also brought controversy. In late July, the Times of London published a profile on Hannah Neal Lynn that seemed to poke holes in her picture-perfect life. And it called into question the level of agency she had over some of her life choices.
A reporter got to do a deep dive and essentially spend time with this family and found that it was hard to get the woman, Hannah, to speak for herself. Either she was constantly being interrupted by her eight children, which is understandable, or being spoken over by her husband, which is not going to be so understandable in today's world.
That's author and journalist Jenna Reese, senior columnist at Religious News Service and author of The Next Mormons. And she's here to take us behind the curtain and understand why millions of us, Mormon or not, are tuning in to watch these women live their lives. Is it just a coincidence? Or is there something about the culture of the Mormon church that primes them for popularity? So Jana, you're someone who's been in the Mormon church for over 30 years now. And you've seen Mormon mom influencers adapt to new online platforms for a long time. And I have to ask because I'm not seeing a ton of like Muslim wife content or Hindu wife content. And I do not see evangelical wife content being this popular, truly.
Is there something about Mormon culture or within the religion that makes people in the church more open to using it as a way of sharing their lives?
What controversies surround Mormon influencers?
That is a really good question. I think that certainly it is a church that for decades has taught its members, quote, every member a missionary, unquote. That has been a mantra. And, you know, we see these missionaries who are going out into the world and they have their name tags and they're giving a year and a half to two years of their lives as volunteers. That's one kind of missionary work. But even ordinary people who are just living their lives and raising their kids and going to PTA meetings and they are supposed to consider themselves to be missionaries as well. And so one of the things that we could see happening 20 years ago as these blogs start taking off, these Mormon mommy blogs that you were talking about, is
In the little corner, you would see discreetly, oh, you know, here's a link to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And it wouldn't necessarily be overt. It wouldn't be, let me tell you what I believe about Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
Why are Mormon women gaining popularity on social media?
0:02–1:50
2
Who are the key influencers in the Mormon mommy culture?
1:50–3:52
3
What controversies surround Mormon influencers?
3:52–5:28
4
How does Mormon culture influence online sharing?
5:28–8:14
5
What role does journaling play in Mormon culture?
8:14–11:35
6
How has the LDS Church reacted to social media?
11:35–13:10
7
What are the implications of Mormon influencers on societal views?
13:10–19:11