February 10, 2026

The last time the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints entered the public eye, it was 2011 and Mitt Romney was running for president. The monster-hit musical ‘The Book of Mormon’ debuted on Broadway that year and turned the Latter-day Saints into a national punch line, indelibly shaping our image of America’s major homegrown religion.

But the avatars of Mormonism are no longer geeks in white shirts with name tags. Nor are they men at all. America is in the middle of a second Mormon Moment, and its representatives are women with flowing hair and flawless skin in outfits that certainly don’t accommodate official undergarments, if any.

The stars of ‘The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’ are only one element of a host of cultural exports from Utah currently taking off. They were preceded by the cast of Bravo’s ‘The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City’ and by Hannah Neeleman, a prominent Mormon farmwife and social-media powerhouse known as Ballerina Farm.

These Mormon and ex-Mormon women, the makeup and clothes they wear, the red-light-therapy masks and blenders and blankets they use, and the protein powders, supplements, and sodas they drink have found an enthusiastic audience across the rest of the country.

In entertainment terms, they have moved from TLC to Disney, from freak to niche to prime time: Next month, Taylor Frankie Paul, one of the ‘Secret Lives’ stars, will receive that ultimate all-American girl-next-door imprimatur and become the next Bachelorette.

How did this happen? For our Cover Story, Bridget Read reports on how the women of Utah blogged and posted their way into American hearts and wallets.

Read the full story now over at https://www.thecut.com/article/mormons-pop-culture-secret-lives-bachelorette.html