The year was 2011, and Mormons had an image problem. The biggest hit on Broadway was The Book of Mormon, where the religion’s representatives were nerdy, repressed young men, evangelizing far-fetched beliefs around the world; meanwhile, shows like Sister Wives depicted the men as polygamists. Things look a lot different in 2026. As shows like The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives and The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City have risen in popularity, suddenly the most recognizable Mormons in America are young women with long hair, multiple babies, and lucrative brand deals. Next month, one of those women will become the next Bachelorette.
This didn’t happen out of nowhere. To understand how we got here, we sent Bridget Read to Utah, where she drove up and down the Wasatch Front, talking to the many momfluencers who are defining this Second Mormon Moment — and who have been blogging and ’gramming their way into relevance for as long as The Book of Mormon has been on Broadway. “The Latter-day Saints believe in ongoing revelations from God; as a result, they can be both inflexibly doctrinaire and expansively open to change,” Bridget writes. “It makes it hard to tell, nearly 200 years after [Joseph] Smith founded his insular church, whether Mormons have assimilated or we’ve become more susceptible to the pitch.”
—Gazelle Emami, editorial director, New York
