April 2026 brought one of the biggest books of the year to our shelves, and everyone is talking about it. Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke introduced us to tradwife Natalie, and immediately, readers believed that the character was inspired by Ballerina Farm’s influencer, Hannah Neeleman.
The 35-year-old influencer has now broken her silence about the topic, while also offering her thoughts on the tradwife debate and the way women act. While she hasn’t quite said she’s definitely not the inspiration, she’s made it clear that she doesn’t really care.
Neeleman chatted with Vulture about the idea of being the inspiration, and she shared, “I know what’s going on.” Rather than debate the topic, which commenters on social media still believe is true, she went on to share that she was surprised a novel like Yesteryear didn’t come out sooner.
The 2026 thriller focuses on Natalie, a tradwife who has a lot of secrets to hide. She’s not doing it all herself, and her husband’s farm produce isn’t as organic as it’s made out to be. However, things take a turn when she wakes up in the 1800s, with a husband who looks like a much older and gruffer version of the one she married and children she doesn’t quite recognize.
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She has to figure out whether it’s a challenge from God or whether she’s somehow ended up time-traveling. Yesteryear is one of those books with twist after twist that has left many with their jaws on the floor.
However, the Ballerina Farms star says that she doesn’t lean into the topics about tradwife, sharing, “With online discourse, women feed off that negative energy sometimes and that’s why things blow up. I honestly stay away from it as much as I can.”
Her focus remained on the topics of tradwife and the discourse online that involves anger and hate. Women tend to tear each other down more than men do, and Neeleman thinks that it comes from the fact that many believe that it will make them feel better about themselves.
In fact, she thinks that all these arguments are leading to a “step backward” for women. Neither side is winning at this point, and it’s time for women to support others in whichever type of lifestyle they want to lead, stating, ““I don’t think women who want to work are winning. I don’t think mothers are winning. In fact, I think it’s a step backward.”
Around the time of Yesteryear coming out, Neeleman welcomed her ninth child with her husband, Daniel. Readers immediately thought of the social media celebrity as they read the story, and the debates of whether she was the inspiration or not continue. Burke hasn’t confirmed if a particular influencer was the inspiration for Natalie, sharing that she took part in influencer bootcamps to understand the role online.