Nara Smith gained global popularity a couple years ago by doing stuff that didn’t exactly...well...connect with Black folks. Posting ASMR-friendly videos and cooking meals from scratch for her white husband and their children (with names including Rumble Honey and Slim Easy) earned her millions of followers and a reputation as a premiere “tradwife,” but we didn’t really know what to do with her.
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Fast-forward to 2025, and now she’s rocking cornrows and chatting it up with A$AP Rocky at Paris Fashion Week. So what’s up now...is Nara Smith “legit” or what?
Let’s go back for a second: It all started between late 2023 and early 2024, when Smith began using social media to post her “tradwife” content, a portmanteau for “traditional wife” meant to convey a woman who is completely devoted to her home and spouse and vehemently adheres to traditional gender roles and values.
Examples included videos of herself cooking elaborate homemade meals while wearing designer clothing. She also began to go viral posting the... creative names of her young children: Rumble Honey, Slim Easy, and Whimsy Lou. Not to mention her sultry, monotone voiceovers and dainty, neutral, and clean aesthetic her 11.5 million TikTok followers can’t seem to get enough of.
But there was something missing.
Although she’s garnered a loyal following, Smith has dealt with her share of detractors as well. On a Reddit thread, one writer described Smith as “trying to sell Mormon (aka a religion that believes that Black people are inferior) propaganda to young Black people,” while another stated how they “don’t trust any Mommy/ Couples/ Family Blogger content” because it’s all “fake.” Others slammed her soft voice that “annoyed” viewers, her seemingly “performative” portrayal of being a homemaker, and critique about her race and her “light-skinned privilege.”
Kathleen Newman-Bremang, deputy director of Unbothered, said Smith, who was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa, to a Mosotho mother and a German father, “isn’t my ministry — I’m the girl who burns toast, spends most days working from bed in my bonnet.” She added, “Nara’s specific brand of stay-at-home-mom who makes bread (and the basket to serve it in) from scratch is not for me.” Even Smith’s religious affiliation with Mormonism was questioned, even after she stated she’s not a “hardcore Mormon.”
But the tide just might be turning in her favor.
Most recently, the 23-year-old swapped her signature black bob and swoop bang for cornrows while exchanging pleasantries with A$AP Rocky at Paris Fashion Week — without her husband, fashion model Lucky Blue Smith. The German fashion model was seen chatting with the “Praise the Lord” rapper at the Miu Miu AW25 show — a far cry from her luxurious kitchen and the myriad ingredients for her homemade creations.
“Not them having a braid offff,” one commenter wrote, while another penned: “The duo we never expected.” A third TikToker speculated that “last time they were talking about changing diapers I wonder what this time they were talking about,” while a fourth expressed excitement for this seemingly unexpected “crossover.” Others complimented her hair and style.
Now, skeptics may have to finally admit that Nara Aziza Smith knows what she’s doing. Some have called Smith’s content “out of touch,” and said that it gives “impressionable young mothers an unrealistic view of motherhood.” Meanwhile, Smith is speaking to Vogue about her 34-step beauty routine. The elite fashion publication spoke to Smith about her 34-step beauty routine, including her recipe for an all-natural lip product that featured only four ingredients: coconut oil, honey, peppermint essential oil and brown sugar.
Rewind to September, and Smith, alongside her husband, attended Ralph Lauren’s spring 2025 runway show in the Hamptons.
Even before that, Smith, who boasts over 634.5 million likes on TikTok, was featured in Harper’s Bazaar in August — an aspiring influencer’s dream.
“I never know what to say when people ask me [what I do], because technically, yes, I create content,” she told the outlet. “But then I’m just living my life and sharing that with people, which a lot of people do.”
The TikTok sensation turned mega mom influencer’s rise to superstardom hasn’t been without its hiccups. She was accused of stealing content from Onezwa Mbola, a lesser known creator from South Africa, who shared her own lifestyle and “made from scratch” content. Fans began to notice uncanny similarities to their videos, including one instance of Mbola making boba completely from scratch – down to the goat’s milk which she sourced from her own livestock. Only two days later, Smith posted her own video also making boba from scratch. We’ll leave that up to you to decide if the ordeal was more than a mere coincidence.
Despite the hateration in this dancery, Smith’s influence is quite undeniable and concerns about her verity might be put to rest.
“There was this girl who had recently had a liver transplant and told me the only thing that helped her get through it was watching my videos. Some people are like, ‘I literally just put your videos on to fall asleep to’ or ‘I know what to make my kids now,’ ” she told Harper’s Bazaar.
Ultimately, Smith, who was also featured in GQ in August, declares how she posts “videos of me cooking for my kids and my husband.” And for those still bothered, she said: “It’s really not that deep.”
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