Nellie Bly Research Paper

Nellie Bly was born Elizabeth Cochran in Cochran’s Mills, Pennsylvania (named after her father Judge Michael Cochran) in 1864. She got her first writing job when she wrote an angry letter responding to a misogynistic newspaper article titled “What Girls Are Good For”. This is when she started using her pen name “Nellie Bly” after a Stephen Foster song. The editor was impressed and gave her a job.
At first she wrote about women working in factories, or doing male jobs. Nellie Bly also wrote about the conditions of workers in her local bottle factory. This was important because normally women who had writing jobs (which weren’t much to begin with) would write articles about something “womanly” like fashion or style. Then, she decided to become

a foreign correspondent in Mexico. During her time in Mexico, she was recording her thoughts on the culture and economy of Mexico. She left after being threatened with arrest by Mexican officials.
She then decided to come to New York City, where she was given the biggest writing job she would ever get. She was going to pretend to be insane to get committed to the Blackwell Island (now Roosevelt Island) Insane Asylum and record the conditions and treatment of the patients inside. She did this, staying for ten days, saw and experienced the horrific treatment of patients, and got the Grand Jury to put a large amount of money into Insane Asylums when she got out so that the patients would be better treated.
Nellie Bly then decided to try to beat Jules Verne's’ “Around the World in 80 Days” record, and got around the world, by herself, in a record-breaking 72 days.
After that feat, she got married to a 73 year old millionaire at 31. She ended up running his business after he died, which was incredible considering she was a woman at that time. Nellie Bly is still considered the best female journalist of her time.