Nara Smith Rejects 'Tradwife' Label Despite 12 Million TikTok Following
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Aug 5
Nara Smith Rejects 'Tradwife' Label Despite 12 Million TikTok Following
3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Aug 5
Summary
Nara Smith told the “Call Her Daddy” podcast she is “a working mom,” not a tradwife, and said viewers wrongly projected retro gender roles onto her content.
12 million TikTok followers have watched Smith build a polished domestic persona through videos of making food from scratch, wearing prairie-style dresses and showcasing an immaculate home life.
Smith said her marriage to fellow model Lucky Blue Smith is egalitarian, with him doing dishes and half the child care, countering assumptions drawn from her online image.
The backlash reflects a gap between Smith’s public branding and how audiences — including conservative-leaning fans — have read her content, a tension the New York Times opinion piece argues she previously did little to discourage.
If Nara Smith’s marriage is truly 50/50, why did her content convince millions she embodied retro gender roles?
Does the tradwife trend reflect real values, or is it mostly a creator-economy performance built from nostalgia, controversy, and algorithm-friendly imagery?