Nellie Bly. I do not know about anyone else, but I had to google who that was and what she did to leave her mark on women’s history. First, it is a shame that I did not know who Nellie Bly was to begin with, and second, I am upset that her story is not better known. Born as Elizabeth Jane Cochran, she had to fight her way to the career she wanted. Her education was interrupted because she had to work to help support her mother after her father died. Upset by the unequal representation of women, Nellie wrote a letter to the editor to a paper in Pittsburg and earned a job writing as a columnist. She gave herself the pen name, Nellie Bly. This new gig writing forced her into a rut of only addressing women’s topics and related issues. Nellie was not satisfied with this confinement of writing. She wanted more. And so, she began her quest to write bigger stories that included more than just women’s issues. A move to New York was her ticket to becoming the writer she wanted to become. Even in rejection to pursue the story she wanted, Nellie went above and beyond the request of a new editor. She faked her way into a mental institution to bring the inside scoop to the public and took a huge risk to make a name for herself. Her boldness validated her place in her field. Nellie Bly was not willing to set back and watch a man do the work she knew she was capable of producing. She became a leading journalist and set a precedence that women had a place in journalism. I appreciate her courage to become the writer she wanted to be; she made it possible for future generations of female journalists to write and report using their real identity. So, while Nellie Bly had to prove she had a place in a man’s working world, she persisted. Stay Curious, Kayla ©Inquisitive Perspectives 2018
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