Google Doodle Celebrates Pioneering Journalist Nellie Bly
Today's doodle pays tribute to journalist on her 151st birthday.
— -- Trailblazing journalist Nellie Bly is being celebrated in today's Google Doodle on what would have been her 151st birthday.
An original song by Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs plays throughout the doodle, honoring the woman who spoke up "for the ones told to shut up."
Born on May 5, 1864 as Elizabeth Jane Cochran, her journalism career was launched after she sent a rebuttal to a Pittsburgh Dispatch article called "What Girls Are Good For."
The article argued a woman's place was in the home. Days later, a pseudonymous rebuttal appeared in the newspaper from Cochran, who was then just 16. In it, she argued the importance of self reliance for women.
After her response was published, the editor tracked the teenager down and hired her as a reporter. At the time, it was common for women to use pen names, so Cochran became Nellie Bly.
During her storied career, Bly went undercover at the Women's Lunatic Asylum in New York and later wrote a book about the conditions she found there.
Beginning in 1889, she also began a trip around the world inspired by the novel "Around the World in 80 Days," sending dispatches back to the New York World.
"Instead of sitting idly and just observing, she was always a part of the action and conversation, despite the fact that public spaces were typically reserved for men at the time," Google said of its choice to honor the journalism legend and feminist icon.
