Jackie Gutierrez, MS ’21 (journalism), knew she wanted to become a soccer journalist after watching the US play Japan in the 2011 Women’s World Cup final. But her pathway toward that goal wasn’t always clear, nor was it linear.
In fact, in high school, Gutierrez had the odds against her: the bare minimum GPA to go to college, no contacts in the industry, no guide on how to get started, and the swelling belief that she wasn’t good enough. It was her Uncle Joe who set Gutierrez on the trajectory for success after a heart-to-heart about her dreams and goals. In 2019, after designing several websites and gaining credibility through internships, she launched Women Kick Balls, an independent media company dedicated to representing the authentic voice of women’s soccer.
Four years later, what once was a small community of nine subscribers has blossomed into more than 3,150, and Gutierrez has credentials from the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), US Soccer, and FIFA. This past summer, she even had the privilege of covering the 2023 Women’s World Cup.
“This summer was a huge milestone. To be there covering it and to have all my expenses fully funded by my subscribers was insane,” Gutierrez says, “I think when you bring people in and invite them into what you want to do and what you want to build, they’ll come. People see your passion and they want to join in on it.”
After ten years of playing soccer as both defense and goalie, Gutierrez pivoted from the field to the page due to health concerns. As someone who always loved storytelling and could often be found reading a book before practice, Gutierrez’s passion led her to the University of Oregon. She was the first in her family to graduate from a four-year university and the first person from Vanguard University of Southern California to graduate with a journalism minor, so continuing her education felt like the next logical step. The UO’s proximity to a women’s soccer team and an informational session with Todd Milbourn, former UO instructor and director of the master's in journalism program, clinched the deal.
“I thought [the UO] seemed like the perfect place to learn and practice my skills and get a good understanding of journalism and media because everything up to that point was kind of a DIY,” Gutierrez says. “Going to the UO was kind of random, but I love it. I talk about it all the time. I just got a new car and the first thing I did was put a Ducks sticker on it."
The professors at the School of Journalism and Communication (SOJC) helped shape Gutierrez into the daring journalist she is today at the frontline of soccer press conferences. One of the reasons she feels she connects so well and can develop trust with women athletes like Alex Morgan is because of the classes she took on interviewing styles and techniques.
“I think that questions and the way you shape them are so important, especially with female athletes. I have a huge strategy behind [the way] I frame questions and refine them because [it] impacts the stories that are being told in the long run,” she says.
Gutierrez believes that she resonates with fellow athletes in a way that many journalists can’t. Her identity gives her additional perspective into women’s sports, and her age, Hispanic heritage, and willingness to show up and involve people in her journey as a content creator are aspects that make her a trusted member of the soccer community.
“I have taken my identity as a young Hispanic female and owned it. I already stick out like a sore thumb, so it fuels me to think that my voice is important,” she says. “I would get really discouraged earlier in my career walking into a room that was full of old, White men, but now I think ‘who cares?’. I have the experience and the credibility . . . and people know my character.”
Today, Gutierrez is not only on a mission to eradicate clickbait articles, misinformation, and unethical reporting surrounding women’s soccer, she’s also branching out into telling her own story through her YouTube channel. Alongside behind-the-scenes and informational videos about how to get started in journalism are personal pieces. Her favorite thing about being a soccer journalist is how the sport creates connections to big-picture conversations like heritage.
“I was born and raised in California and so were my parents. Because my last name is Gutierrez, I have lots of people who come up to me and start speaking to me in Spanish, and I don’t know Spanish. I’m third generation so my experience is very Americanized, but I still have brown skin and I’m kind of an outlier. I can’t tell you how many times people lecture me about [not knowing Spanish] and it’s so frustrating because it wasn’t my decision. Growing up, my parents were punished in school if they spoke Spanish, so they didn’t teach us Spanish,” Gutierrez says.
One of her videos titled This Is Not Talked About Enough specifically discusses Suicide Prevention Month in relation to the women athlete and Hispanic communities. In it, she opens up about her own mental health struggles as someone who “never planned to make it past high school.”
“Being Hispanic and a survivor of suicide are literally two components of my DNA that shaped me into who I am today, and so I hope that in soccer, we can keep having these conversations, because they really do make a difference,” Gutierrez says in the video. “Soccer has allowed me to process, celebrate, and connect with so many people, but I also know that there’s still more work to do when it comes to conversations and actions when it comes to representation. Being an entrepreneur in my work, it’s far from easy, but I hope that it’s an example to other people who look like me that their dreams are possible if they put in the hard work.”
That is exactly what Gutierrez plans to continue doing with Women Kick Balls. As a one-woman team, she must be strategic about the decisions she makes, and that means navigating work-life balance and client consistency while trying to come up with new, innovative ways to connect her audience to the world of women’s soccer—like her magazine on the growth of the NWSL in Southern California which sold over 800 copies last year. She admits she still has doubts all the time, but it’s worth it.
“In my career, I think what my younger self would want to see, and then I try to emulate those things. I get a lot of messages from parents who will say ‘my daughter looks up to you,’ which is so sweet. There was one mom who sent me a photo of her daughter holding my magazine that I published as her Christmas gift under her Christmas tree. Here I was thinking the odds are against me and yet there are young people who are already being impacted and who now have at least one example that they can look up to.”
To young journalists and people following their dreams, Jackie has these words of advice:
“Go for it. Dream big, even if people tell you ‘No.’ I think your creativity can take you so many places. My creativity took me to a World Cup,” she says.
Check out the School of Journalism and Communication’s interview with Jackie.
—By Sage Kiernan-Sherrow, UO Alumni Association copywriter/editor