Photos by Ashley Hylbert, Makeup by Brittainy Hall
Online, Landyn Hutchinson is everyone’s best gal pal. From discount codes and clothing try-on sessions, to parenting wins (and fails) and crockpot recipes, the blogger and influencer shares it all on her social media and lifestyle website “Living With Landyn.” But while many such personalities turn it on for the camera, with Landyn what you see online is what you get IRL (in real life).
As her nearly 200 thousand followers would agree, a run-in with Landyn is the same as a visit to her page. She’s an open book, willing to share her favorite things and life advice with total strangers at the drop of a hat.
For proof, look no further than our hour-long chat, during which—despite having only met Hutchinson one time prior—I asked her advice on gifts for the bridesmaids at my upcoming wedding and when to start new holiday traditions with my now-husband as if I’d known this woman for years. And she answered each with the same candor and humor her followers have come to know from her Instagram stories. In other words, Hutchinson is the real deal.
“I've always loved people,” she says. “My mom says as a little kid, I would talk to the man at the gas station, like, ‘Hey how are you doing?’ Before social media, I would strike up a conversation with the woman at the Publix checkout. ‘Oh, I love your whatever!’ I think a compliment goes a long way—I only do it genuinely—and I think women don't give other women enough compliments. And you know when someone tells you, ‘Your hair looks so great today,’ I mean, you could take on the world.”
Her positive attitude, outgoing spirit, and girl’s girl demeanor made her the perfect fit for the growing social media influencer community, but Hutchinson admits she wasn’t so sure what that meant.
“I wasn’t a girl who had social media, which I know, is wild now,” she says. “But my best girlfriend said, ‘Landyn, there’s these blogs. You should really think about putting one out there.’”
Ashley Hylbert
Hutchinson married her childhood sweetheart, NFL star Steve Hutchinson, and the two were living in Minnesota with their children, Luke and Lily, at the time. Despite a lack of knowledge about the internet or social media, Hutchinson set to work building her own website.
“I actually joined Instagram and sold some clothes there on a weekend and thought, ‘I’ll use that money to get a website,’” she says. And while her husband offered up his help, she was determined to do it herself. “It wasn't very pretty. And quite honestly, I didn't tell anybody about it. I didn't really have a brand or anything—I didn't really know what that was.”
But just as she was learning the ropes, Steve’s job took them to Nashville and she put her blog on the back burner as she and her family started a new life in a new town. A run-in with a photographer in the branding business got Hutchinson back in the game.
“She took some pictures and helped me design a logo that was like, ‘oh my gosh, this feels so much like me,’” she says. “I felt so passionate and excited to finally put it somewhere.”
She began growing her blog, but it wasn’t until the dawn of Instagram stories that she really found her voice. And that voice was authentic, real, and not filtered.
“Instastories really gave everyone an inside look into my real life; the messy, the late dropping your kids off at school, not wearing a bra, getting a zit, burning your dinner real life,” she says. “I think women really connected with that, almost like, ‘Oh, she's like us.’ And I am. I cry, I laugh. I just kind of take these women through my life. And through that, it's really created a tribe and a community.”
Hutchinson is moved when women tell her she’s inspired them, and it’s a privilege she doesn’t take lightly.
“I want to help them in making choices every day,” she says. “I have that little tagline I did a couple years ago, ‘making pretty choices,’ and that really just resonates with so many things. It's not just like materialistic, it’s making pretty choices within your relationships, and your marriage, and your kids, and taking care of yourself, and being good to yourself. It’s encouraging women to take a step back and say, "OK, I'm going to make a pretty choice.”
Ashley Hylbert
Holiday Traditions
When it comes to Christmas, as with all things, Hutchinson is happy to share her favorite traditions—many of which were inspired by her mom, Belinda, who makes frequent appearances on her Instagram stories.
"My mom was like living with Martha Stewart. I learned so much from her about entertaining. She always had people in the house, and she was always so gracious and loved to cook,” Hutchinson says. “She made the same Christmas meal for us every year, with my grandmother’s sides,” she says. “You didn't get those things all the time—there were certain things that I've passed on [to my family] that I make now, and they just feel like holiday—they feel like family, feel good.”
When she first got married (at 26), Hutchinson found herself playing hostess to her husband’s football teammates and their families. And she called on her childhood memories to do so.
“With Steve's career, we always ended up hosting. We have the same dinner, we have the same sides, and kind of switch up our protein,” she says.
But there’s one beloved holiday recipe that her mother has yet to share with her.
“My mom to this day makes the most beautiful sugar cookies,” she says. “She will not share the recipe with me. It's my grandma's. She always thought about doing something with it. I'm like, ‘Mom, you're not going to do anything with it, let's tell the people. Because it's good!’"
She also relishes in celebrating friends at Christmas. Many of them are working moms who don’t have a ton of time, especially during the holiday season, but they make a point to get together every year nonetheless.
“One new tradition I started a couple years ago—which is so much fun and we all look forward to—is a favorite things party with my girlfriends,” she says of the event, which sounds oh-so Landyn.
“We each bring one beauty thing or something from that year that we're like, ‘I found this on Amazon and I freaking love it.’ There’s only seven of us so you buy seven of that one thing, and we do an exchange. We all go home with seven new things that saved our lives—dry shampoo, your favorite lipstick, it doesn't have to be anything crazy. We just have fun and we each bring an appetizer, and we have wine and we exchange gifts.”
Ashley Hylbert
Helping Women One Post at a Time
She brings that same “girl, you’re going to love this” attitude to her recently opened store, Living With Landyn, in the aptly (albeit coincidentally) named L&L Marketplace. The store’s opening was an emotional experience for Hutchinson, who was able to connect with her online friends from all over the country in person.
“I'm blown away. They came from Seattle, Hawaii, California, Alabama, Idaho. They drove for hours. This one sweet boy waited in line for two hours to get a picture for his mom, and he FaceTimed her,” she says. “A woman who just went through her 17th round of chemo, she had to have her leg amputated, she's like, ‘You got me through it.’ And it's things like that that I'm like, I don't even know that I'm touching these women in these ways, by just living my life on the daily, and just laughing at myself. We’ve created this community that I’m really proud of.”
Despite her success, Hutchinson remains humble—and dedicated to the women who follow her.
“I didn't get into this for anything,” she says. “My husband worked really hard and gave me the ability to be a stay-at-home mom and continue to build this craft as I was raising my kids. I feel lucky to even be in the position I am. I say grateful a million times, but I really am. I'm touched by these women, and I'm just so happy to have all this. It’s really pretty magical.”