Nara Smith quickly became one of the faces of the tradwife movement when she launched her illustrious social media career. Now, the 23-year-old model and content creator is speaking out about the viral moment and explaining why she and her husband, Lucky Smith, don’t consider themselves a “traditional” couple.
The term tradwife, shortened from traditional wife, refers to a woman who follows traditional norms set by society. For many, a traditional wife involves getting married and having kids at a young age.
This is the case for Smith, who married Lucky at 18 and had her first child at 19. Amid her growing popularity on social media for posting videos where she makes elaborate meals from scratch for her family while decked out in formal attire, Smith was labeled a tradwife by social media users. Some criticized Smith’s decisions to follow a traditional path of life, including being a young mom and serving her husband as a traditional homemaker.
In an interview on the Jay Shetty Podcast, the mom of three, who is expecting her fourth child, revealed what she really thinks about the tradwife label she’s been given.
“There’s nothing truly traditional about us as a couple, apart from maybe that we chose to have kids young and get married young. But apart from that, we split chores 50/50,” Smith said.
“There’s things that Lucky does that I guess traditional men wouldn’t do,” she continued. “Like do the dishes or get the kids dressed or do their hair, or whatever it may be that people don’t associate with a traditional man.”
Smith added that there are a lot misconceptions about her role as a young mom and wife.
“And there’s things that I do, like having a full-time career and having Lucky be home watching the children while I travel for two weeks. Which is, I guess, not traditional in their mind,” she explained.
Smith told Shetty that the traditional wife role never crossed her mind until she started posting content on her social media accounts, where she met many critics.
“I feel like they’re projecting how they want their life onto me,” Smith shared.
“I think judging someone based on their timing of having kids or timing of getting married or whatever it may be is such an odd concept to me,” she said.
Smith also shared some insights into her early life when she first started dating Lucky. When her now husband initially asked the model to start dating, Smith said she made her intentions very clear.
“I take this very serious,” Smith told Shetty, recalling what she told her now husband.
“It’s either gonna end in marriage or we’re just gonna be done now, because I’m not gonna invest my time in you if that’s not the ultimate goal, and we were aligned,” she said.
Despite what people have said about her, Smith said that the life she lives now had always been in mind, contrasting herself from her friends and peers.
“I’ve always felt a little bit more mature for my age than a person at my age would be, and I always wanted different things in life than other people,” Smith said.
“I always wanted to start a family, I wanted to have a slower life, I wanted to get married younger, I wanted to work and build something for my kids. My priorities were never in partying, or going out, or dating around, or going on fun vacations,” she shared.
Through all the criticism and online chatter about her life and decisions, Smith said that she’ll continue to move forward with her style of content, regardless of the opinions of others.
“I feel like people see that side of my life, and I voice that side of my life, but they still don’t want to accept it,” Smith shared.
“So I’ve just kind of learned … [I’m] gonna do me and whoever resonates with that, great. If they don’t, then there’s nothing really I can do to change their minds,” she said.
