A Daredevil Who Was Ahead of Her Time

If you've ever felt like doing something daring and adventurous that other people say you can't do, the story of Nellie Bly will give you a sense of all that is possible.

Bly was an adventure-seeking young woman in the late 1800s -- a time when women were not encouraged to be adventure-seeking -- who became a national sensation as a newspaper writer with columns on subjects people had never read about. She went undercover in a horrible institution that held women who were considered crazy, and then she wrote about the awful conditions the patients were kept in. She later wrote several more stories uncovering unfair and illegal actions toward women, a style of story called an exposé. She even took a solo trip around the world in 72 days, carrying everything she needed in one small suitcase, and she wrote about that, too. Keep in mind there were no jet planes to get around in back then: It was all by ship and train!

Bly's own story is also compelling. When she was a child, her life was turned upside down after the death of her father, and even when she was an adult her financial and romantic circumstances changed many times. After inheriting her husband's business, she became an inventor and won 25 patents for her designs.

Even by current standards, Bly's accomplishments would be considered great, but that she did these things so long ago makes her life story an amazing lesson in courage and perseverance.

-- Margaret Webb Pressler