During life’s most unexpected challenges, Ballerina Farm’s Hannah Neeleman has a solid support system in her husband, Daniel.

Speaking to PEOPLE exclusively as one of 2024’s Creators of the Year, the viral influencer reflected on the highs and lows of the past 12 months. With nearly 20 million followers between her TikTok and Instagram platforms, Neeleman, 34, has learned that “people will have opinions” on her lifestyle that aren’t always reflective of reality.

“Just learning to navigate that has been really good for me. It’s been a learning experience,” says the Juilliard-trained dancer. “At the end of the day, it’s just what really happens that matters.”

She says she makes an effort to focus on “who I am and the day’s work that I’m putting in” on her rural 328-acre property in Utah. There, she and Daniel have cultivated their shared business, Ballerina Farm, and continue to raise their eight children and a plethora of farm animals.

In July, the U.K.’s The Sunday Times published a controversial profile on Neeleman, which she denounced in a video shortly after the article was printed. In her response, the social media star said she felt the piece was “an attack on my family and my marriage.”

Speaking to PEOPLE months after the debacle, Neeleman says she leaned on her spouse amid the criticism and looked to him as a model for how to handle such situations.

“Daniel, my husband, is so good at just being a steady rock and just being that constant for me,” she shares. “And he doesn’t ever get entangled with the ups and downs [of] social media. He’s just like, ‘No, we’re doing our thing. It’s not about them, it’s about us and we’re going to keep doing what we love and sharing.'”

She adds, “It’s been a learning experience for sure but Daniel’s been really good for that.”

Looking back on the better moments of 2024, Neeleman points to the birth of her daughter, Flora Jo, on Jan. 2 as a major highlight and “a beautiful experience for our family.” Just 12 days after Flora Jo arrived, the 2023 Mrs. American pageant winner competed in the Mrs. World competition.

A few weeks later, Neeleman’s father died after seven years of living with cancer. Between gaining a new family member and losing another, the content creator witnessed her millions of fans step up to show her how much they cared. She was in awe of all that she had built since she started posting about Ballerina Farm in 2017.

“It was just overwhelming, the amount of community and love, because my life is shared online and these were really big experiences that a lot of people had experienced with me and been on the journey with me,” she tells PEOPLE. “I feel like those two experiences, the extremes of both life and death, were really big for me, and it was evident in the audience and community that I had built being part of that.”