Does freelance work count as "real" experience?

I americium moving arsenic a information scraping Freelance developer pinch Python. I person been moving for nan past 5 years successful building automation and scraping scripts pinch Python. For nan past 3 years, I person been learning Django and created respective projects successful Django and hosted immoderate of these apps. Some of these apps are utilized by my clients. I americium now 32 years old. I ne'er worked successful immoderate IT institution till now. Because I was a teacher. I americium from India.

Now, I want to subordinate an IT institution arsenic a Python Django Backend/Full-Stack developer. In my resume, really galore years of acquisition should I write? Do you deliberation I americium still fresher for companies?