Nellie Bly
- Sam
This month's shero in history is the amazing female investigative reporter Nellie Bly.
Nellie Bly was born Elizabeth Cochran on May 5, 1864.
Even though she lived in a male-dominated world, she landed a job at a newspaper in Pittsburgh because of a letter she wrote in response to an article against working women, entitled "What Girls are Good For." The editor was so impressed with her that he gave her a job. She took the pen name of Nellie Bly after an old song of the same title.
Her first articles focused on living conditions of the poor in various areas. In fact, a series of articles she wrote while living amongst the poor in Mexico got her booted from the country.
Finding Pittsburgh too small for her tastes, she left for New York in 1887 where she got a job at the New York World.
One of her more infamous escapades took place at this time. Bly had herself committed to a mental institution for ten days to report on the horrendous living conditions. The subsequent article helped to permanently change the conditions of mental health facilities in New York.
She continued to expose the conditions of all sorts of groups and places, including jails and the legislature.
On November 14, 1889, Bly set sail from New York to beat the record of Phileas Fogg, the fictional main character in Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne. Her newspaper would print her updates on the journey, making her famous. She beat the record by about eight days, finishing with a time of seventy-two days, six hours, eleven minutes, and fourteen seconds.
Bly married Robert Seaman in 1895, but, after he died, embezzlement hurt their company financially to the point that Bly had to return to work at the newspaper.
She died on January 27, 1922 in New York City.
Nellie Bly is a shero because her investigative reporting helped to change many corrupt systems. Her work also paved the way for more women to hold jobs in professional careers. She was steadfast in her convictions and challenged the less desirable aspects of society. For these reasons, as well as many more, Nellie Bly is my historical shero of the month.