She welds by day, runs a booming business by night, and she’s 17
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IDAHO FALLS — Inside the Welding Technology building at the Bonneville Joint School District 93 Technical Careers High School, students competed in teams against each other on a recent Friday.
In the midst of a lot of boys, there were a few girls, including Paige Stolworthy. The 17-year-old enrolled in the program as a freshman and fell in love with it.
“Tech has this program where you go through and try out each blue-collar job, and when I tried welding, that’s the one I clicked with and liked the best,” Paige tells EastIdahoNews.com.
Paige grew up working with her dad and older brothers in their shop. She’s always loved art but struggled with typical academic classes at school.
“Come hunting season before, she was like, ‘C’mon, Dad, let’s go.’ Now it’s me saying, ‘Hey, let’s go,’ and she’s like, ‘No, I don’t want to miss today. Can we go tomorrow or this weekend?'” says Bart Stolworthy, Paige’s dad.
It’s estimated that women make up 5 percent of the welding workforce and in the past, very few girls have enrolled in classes at the technical high school. But that’s gradually changing.
“When girls come into the welding program, they know there are not a lot of them, so they come in and are really motivated,” says D93 welding instructor Tristan Telford. “They do really, really well and actually outperform a lot of the boys in the classroom just because they’re dedicated to prove themselves.”
Paige’s parents were never worried about her pursuing an interest in a male-dominated field, and she has received some pushback from boys in her class but says, “I just turn around and show them up.”
The first few hours of Paige’s school day consist of welding activities. Then she moves into more traditional classes, and when the bell rings, she isn’t done working. She heads to the family shop to run a Traxxas remote control vehicle dealership.
“I bring them in. I sell all of them. Anytime anything’s broken, people bring them in to me to repair them,” Paige explains.
Paige, her dad and brothers launched B&S Hobbies three years ago when they went to buy a Traxxas car, but there weren’t any available.
“When they didn’t have anything, my dad looked at me and said, ‘Do you guys want to run a business?'” Paige recalls. “So we called Traxxas and got all the paperwork done and just started bringing stuff in.”
Since then, Paige has gradually taken over the business, and it’s grown substantially. She’s paid off her dad’s original loan, is making a profit and is learning important life skills.
“It’s helped Paige overcome anxiety issues and become more confident,” says Stephanie Stolworthy, Paige’s mom. “She’s learned a lot of responsibilities that most kids don’t learn or experience until they become adults.
Paige adds, “I was really bad at talking to people beforehand, and I’ve gotten way better at it. I also do a lot of paperwork and bookworm, and I’ve learned the behind the scenes of running a business.”
Paige plans to continue to grow her business, and when high school is done, she wants to keep welding. She loves a good challenge and has some advice for other girls looking to make a difference in fields where they aren’t a lot of women.
“You have to pave the way. There’s not a lot of people out there, but if we keep paving the way, there’s more room for people like us to do it,” she says.