NELLIE BLY

Born Elizabeth Cochran on May 5, 1864, in Cochran's Mills, Pennsylvania, journalist Nellie Bly began writing for The Pittsburgh Dispatch in 1885. Two years later, Bly moved to New York City and began working for the New York World.

 In conjunction with one of her first assignments for the World, she spent several days on Blackwell's Island, posing as a mental patient for an exposé. In 1890, the paper sent her on a trip around the world in a record-setting 72 days. Bly died on January 27, 1922, at age 57, in New York City.

In an effort to support her now-single mother, Bly enrolled at the Indiana Normal School, a small college in Indiana, Pennsylvania, where she studied to become a teacher.

 However, not long after beginning her courses there, financial constraints forced Bly to table her hopes for a higher education. After leaving the school, she moved with her mother to the nearby city of Pittsburgh, where, together, they ran a boarding house.

Bly's future finally began to look brighter in the early 1880s, when, at the age of 18, she submitted a racy response to an editorial piece that had been published in The Pittsburgh Dispatch. In the piece, writer Erasmus Wilson (known to Dispatch readers as the "Quiet Observer," or Q.O.) claimed that women were best served in the home, conducting domestic duties such as raising children, cooking and cleaning, and called the working woman "a monstrosity.

" Aghast by Wilson's sexist statements, it didn't take long fo

r Bly to craft her fiery rebuttal. Bly's letter grabbed the attention of the paper's managing editor, George Madden, who, in turn, offered her a position.

Working as a reporter (beginning in 1885) for The Pittsburgh Dispatch at a rate of $5 per week—and taking on the pen name by which she's best known, after the Stephen Foster song "Nelly Bly" [sic]—Bly expanded upon the negative consequences of sexist ideologies and emphasized the importance of women's rights issues. She also became renowned for her investigative and undercover reporting, including posing as a sweatshop worker to expose poor working conditions faced by women. However, Bly became increasingly limited in her work at The Pittsburgh Dispatch after her editors moved her to the paper's women's page, and aspired to find a more meaningful career.

In 1887, Bly relocated to New York City, where she began working for the newspaper New York World, the publication that would later become famously known for spearheading "yellow journalism."

Cochran nació el 5 de mayo de 1864 en Pittsburgh, Pensilvania. Ella constatemente cuestionó las convenciones sociales de la época, en la cual los hombres eran los que tenían que trabajar y las mujeres debían de permanecer en el hogar.

Una carta enviada por ella en reclamo de un artículo sexista publicado en el Pittsburgh Dispatch impresionó al editor de dicho medio, por lo cual le ofreció un trabajo como reportera. Fue ahí donde obtuvo su apodo de Nellie Bly, en honor a la canción de Stephen Foster.

Posteriormente, Cochren renunció el Pittsburgh Dispatch y se mudó al  New York World, donde trabajó para Joseph Pulitzer. Fue ahí donde se originó la idea de este gran viaje, el cual se ideó en referencia al libro La vuelta al mundo en ochenta días, de Julio Verne.

 Nellie Bly viajó por todo el planeta durante setenta y dos días, seis horas, once minutos y catorce segundos; consiguiendo batir el récord establecido en ese momento y convirtiéndose se en la primera mujer en dar la vuelta al globo sin ninguna compañía.