Nellie Bly

Elizabeth Cochran Seaman , known by her pen name Nellie Bly, was an American journalist. She was also a writer, industrialist, inventor, and a charity worker who was widely known for her recordbreaking trip around the world in 72 days, in emulation of Jules Vernes fictional character Phileas Fogg, and an expos in which she faked insanity to study a mental institution from within. She was a pioneer in her field, and launched a new kind of investigative journalism.

At birth she was named Elizabeth Jane Cochran. She was born in Cochrans Mills, today part of the Pittsburgh suburb of Burrell Township, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania. Her father, Michael Cochran, was a laborer and mill worker who married Mary Jane. His father had immigrated from County Londonderry, Ireland in the 1790s. Cochran taught his young children a cogent lesson about the virtues of hard work and determination, buying the local mill and most of the land surrounding his family farmhouse. As a young girl Elizabeth often was called Pinky because she so frequently wore the color. As she became a teenager she wanted to portray herself as more sophisticated, and so dropped the nickname and changed her surname to Cochrane. She attended boarding school for one term, but was forced to drop out due to lack of funds.

Source: Wikipedia