Nara Smith opened up about some of the darker periods in her life in a rare, candid interview with Who What Wear and addressed how she battled negativity and, at some point, let it drag her down.

The 23-year-old influencer — who has over 15 million followers between Instagram and TikTok — told the fashion publication that her husband, Lucky Blue Smith, 26, has offered a much-needed helping hand as she adjusts to fame. As an established model himself, he was used to strangers vying for his attention in public.

Nara said Lucky Blue’s key advice was to avoid reading the hateful comments that can surge up the way it did on Reddit after the couple announced they were expecting their third child together last year. The German-South African creator admitted that she isn’t on the anonymous forum-based site, but it made its way to her TikTok feed, and she couldn’t help but read every comment.

“I just felt so heavy,” Nara told Who What Wear of her reaction to the hate while pregnant. “Nothing felt good to me anymore.”

Noting that she experienced difficult postpartum periods with all three kids, she continued, “I didn’t understand why all of these people were saying things that were untrue and actually running with that. It became this insane thing … I was getting attacked for literally just posting cooking videos and not harming anyone.”

In favor of her mental wellbeing, the creator — who is well known for making elaborate recipes from scratch — said she made an effort to shield herself from the discourse as much as possible. She does interact with her followers but typically focuses on the more positive fans who support her as a parent and fashion icon.

Except, she told the outlet, when people call her a “tradwife.” Nara rejects the newly popularized term completely and does not associate with the lifestyle trend that flooded TikTok during the past year. Online, tradwives are typically seen in the kitchen or performing household chores, and frequently, a key aspect of the traditional role is a wife’s submission to her husband.

While Nara voiced her respect for those primarily focused on “being a wife, a mother and running a household,” she insisted that the title doesn’t match her real life and relationship.

“I’m a working mom. I take care of kids. I split the responsibility with Lucky. Our household is very 50/50,” she told Who What Wear. “We try to figure out the kids while both of us work. It’s very much this jigsaw puzzle that we’re trying to work through every single day. Being labeled as [a tradwife], that just didn’t fit.”

Not to mention, she didn’t want her love of cooking, as seen in some of her most viewed content, to be misconstrued.

“I didn’t want this narrative out there that I’m just at home slaving away. I’m not a tradwife. I’m a working mom, and I love cooking, and I have a passion for cooking for my husband, for my kids. Cooking is my love language. I love taking care of people in that way,” she explained in the interview published on Nov. 20.

Nara also used the outlet’s platform to set the record straight about her faith. While most assume they’re Mormons, she explained that they’re still exploring how much they want to lean into religion at all as they raise their three kids, Rumble, 4, Slim, 2, and Whimsy Lou, 6 months. Still, she maintained that they’re not “hardcore Mormons.”

“It’s really hard to be boxed into this one thing and be like, ‘Oh, they’re Mormon’ … No, we’re not. We’re figuring out our faith. We’re growing. We’re evolving,” Nara said in the interview. “We obviously grew up in certain ways, and we obviously got married so young, and throughout the years, things change, and opinions change, and thoughts change.”