In 1885, 18-year-old Elizabeth Cochrane of Pittsburgh read a newspaper article claiming that women were only good for raising children and keeping house. Outraged, she wrote a fiery rebuttal. The editor was so impressed that he offered her a job — and a new name: Nellie Bly, taken from a Stephen Foster song.
Bly wanted to tackle serious issues, not just the “women’s pages.” At 21, she traveled to Mexico as a foreign correspondent, exposing poverty and corruption. Her work angered officials and forced her to return home — but it proved her courage as a reporter.
At 23, she took on her most daring assignment: pretending to be insane so she could be committed to New York’s Women’s Lunatic Asylum. For ten days she endured the horrors inside, then published a shocking exposé. The public outcry led to real reforms in mental health care.
A few years later, inspired by Jules Verne, Bly set out to circle the world. Traveling alone by ship, train, and carriage, she completed the journey in just 72 days — becoming a global sensation.
Though she later stepped back from journalism after marriage, she returned during World War I as one of the first women to report from the front lines.
Nellie Bly died in 1922, but her legacy lives on. She proved that truth-seeking knows no gender — and that fearless reporting can change the world.