Today would be the 151st birthday of Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman—AKA Nellie Bly—a journalist, inventor, and record-breaking traveler who spoke up for the ones who’d been told to shut up—as told by today’s Google Doodle commemorative song by Karen O of The Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
Bly got her start in 1880 when she read a column entitled “What Girls Are Good For”—which asserted that women were for domestic tasks and working women were a “monstrosity”—and couldn’t help but write a response called “The Girl Puzzle” to the Pittsburg Dispatch in which it appeared. The editor, George Madden, was so impressed with her rebuttal that it was printed, he asked her to write another column, and he eventually offered her a job, which she used to write about the struggles of women who worked in factories as she transitioned into a career of investigative journalism.
Later in life, Bly would make a record-setting journey to make Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days a reality—and beat it by coming in at 72 days, breaking all previous records for traveling around the globe. She also went undercover as a patient at a women’s asylum on Blackwell’s Island (Roosevelt Island today) to uncover the poor conditions and treatment of patients.
She made a life out of standing up for those who couldn’t do it for themselves and being a kickass journalist while doing it, proving her point to that idiot, who didn’t think she or any other woman could handle more than cooking and cleaning, better than her initial rebuttal ever could. Thank you, Nellie Bly—from everyone.
(via Google)
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