Elizabeth Cochrane, also known as Nellie Bly had a poor academic record in her early ages of schooling. Although her grades did not reflect her aspirations, she had passion to be a writer. Being a part of a poor family, Elizabeth moved to Pittsburgh to find work at the age of 16. Still on the hunt for a descent job, she was reading an article in the Pittsburgh Dispatch called What Girls Are Good For. She was very aggravated to find out that the author (a male) had mentioned that women receive less pay then men, and he had exposed his personal opinion in the ‘use’ of women. Cochrane was furious, and wrote a letter to the editor complaining about the piece. The editor had responded, “What would you write if you were a journalist?” At the age of 18, she wrote back explaining that she would write about ordinary people. Therefore, he had hired her as a journalist and was blown away by her work.
Under the secretive name of ‘Nellie Bly’ she wrote about political corruption and poverty in Mexico, but was later kicked out of Mexico for exposing the horrid truth. After Elizabeth’s next project, which was working in the insane asylum on Blackwell’s Island, she was now on a mission to circle the world in record time, a competition for her new newspaper The New York World. she returned in record time in 72 days, 6 hours, 11 minutes and 14 seconds, she was greeted by many fans. After her retirement, on a holiday break in Europe, World War 1 broke out. Bly still had a passion for journalism, so she flew to the Eastern Front where she had reported the war for the New York Evening Journal.
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