You may have seen her driving around town in her car with the iconic TXGIRL license plate. Or maybe you’ve seen her watching a field hockey game for her daughter, or perhaps a marching band competition for her son. Whether you know Julie Hutchinson personally or not, just a few minutes with her, and you’ll know that she has an interesting story to tell.

For Women’s History Month, Hi’s Eye chose to spotlight an inspiring woman in the Westfield community. Due to Hutchinson’s good nature, intelligence and hard work, she was the perfect candidate.

Hutchinson grew up in Fort Worth, TX. Following high school, she attended Texas A&M University and earned a BA in Speech Communications. There, she had taken some marketing classes, and enjoyed the advertising aspect. She then attended The University of Texas at Austin and received an MA in Advertising.

Following her schooling, Hutchinson went into advertising doing media buying and planning. In this career, Hutchinson decided where clients would place ads, negotiated with providers and then spent the money for the clients. Although stressful and deadline driven, sometimes working long hours, she thoroughly enjoyed what she did.

“This was kind of a more math part of [advertising],” said Hutchinson. “I realized I wasn’t a creative person. I couldn’t make the ads, but this was something I could do. It was just interesting to be able to analyze the media people were using and figure out where my clients got the best bang for their buck depending on who they were trying to reach.”

In this line of work, Hutchinson was able to gain invaluable experiences outside of her job as well, and she attended countless events such as Stanley Cup games, World Series games and concerts.

In order to become a stay-at-home mom, Hutchinson left advertising in 2002 and raised her family. They moved to Westfield in 2008 for her husband’s job. 

“I was very sad because I was leaving everything I ever knew behind,” said Hutchinson. “My friends were in Texas. My family is in Texas. That’s where I always lived.” 

However, the best was yet to come. When her two children got older, Hutchinson decided to jump back into the working world, this time with a different career.

“I didn’t really want to get back into advertising because I had been out of it for so long,” she said. “I felt out of touch with that industry.” The often long hours also made it impractical while maintaining a family life.

Realizing that she had always enjoyed school, specifically math class, Hutchinson decided to pursue becoming a math teacher and went back to college. For the age level, she chose middle schoolers partly due to the fear that some people have of teaching them.

“I was really trying to think about what my best option for getting a job would be,” Hutchinson said.

Today, she has been a math teacher in Plainfield for three years, and despite the challenges she faces working in an economically disadvantaged district, she loves it.

“I really do like middle school age kids,” she said. “They’re this weird combination of still being little kids, but they’re trying to grow up. You get some of these issues when you start to get older and start to mature, but they’re still little kids at heart. They’re just really interesting, and they can be really funny. And I’ve discovered I really relate to them.”

However, the best part of the job is when she breaks through with a student who can finally understand the material. “That makes anything else I have to deal with totally worthwhile,” she said.

Hutchinson’s advice for everyone? Keep working, even if it’s difficult.

“I’d never realized how tough [being a teacher] was going to be,” she said. “When I first got in the classroom, that first year was really, really hard. But I stuck with it. Every year it’s just gotten better and better and better.”