Girl Reporters: Nellie Bly & Winifred Sweet Black
Reporting back from the 1900 female reporters have made such an impact and growth in their journalism careers. I was fascinated to learn about the undercover group of girl journalists who gathered information to become reporters. One of which is Nellie Bly. Born on May 5th, 1864 in Cochrans Mills, Pennsylvania. She had her first job at Pittsburg dispatch at age 16 because of how passionate and determined she was. A big accomplishment of hers was when she went undercover into an insane asylum to get a story on what was really going on behind the walls of the clinic. Bly got admitted into the asylum by posing as a patient with all these medical issues. While she was there she witnessed horrifying conditions of neglect and abuse. “Behind asylum bars and 10 days in a mad house,” Nellie claimed, “I said I would and I did”. She found a lot of information and learned people were tortured and abused and were able to write a breathtaking story on what truly happened in this asylum. She also took a trip around the world in 72 days breaking a record at the time.
Winifred Sweet Black was another girl reporter who made history with girl reporting. She was claimed to be a beautiful red-headed girl who always wanted to be an actress. She worked with an acting group but didn't get any bigger roles and hated it. She would send letters to her sister which later got published on how passionate she was. She then moved to NYC to try and pursue her new reporting and storytelling dreams. She claimed she, “would do anything for the pursuit of news”. There were cases of her faking an injury to go into a hospital uncover, SA, and being treated very poorly “A city's disgrace”, all to get behind the scenes for the stories. Her undercover stories became a trademark for her and girl reporting throughout history. I found it so fascinating to learn all about girl reporting and how far they've come over time. Girl reporters have come such a long way and it's inspiring to learn about what they were willing to do for a good story.
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