Thursday morning I read a news article about Hilde Lysiak, a journalist in Pennsylvania who recently received a lot of negative attention for breaking a story about a murder, in advance of other media outlets.
One of the reasons for the comments is that Lysiak is only 9-years-old. She is the publisher of Orange Street News, which is a monthly newspaper and website.
People referred to her story as “sensationalist trash” and commented that they were “disgusted that this cute little girl thinks she’s a journalist. What happened to tea parties?”
In today’s day and age, many often hide behind their computer screens and make hateful comments on things they probably wouldn’t say to someone’s face.
I can sympathize with Lysiak, when working in this field, you do have to have a tough skin.
However, for adults to bully a young child who took the initiative to create her own news outlet is completely unacceptable. I don’t know when it became the status quo to bully people via the Internet, especially from people who have no idea what it’s like to be a journalist, lawyer, doctor or anyone else they choose to bully.
Instead of offering up constructive criticism, her attackers chose to write hurtful things and attempt to discourage this young girl from following her dreams.
Where is it written that all adolescent girls must host tea parties and play with Barbie dolls? I did neither. I mostly read books, but I wish I had Lysiak’s initiative when I was her age.
However, her response to these misguided comments was awesome. “I know this makes some of you uncomfortable and I know some of you just want me to sit down and be quiet because I’m 9. But if you want me to stop covering news, then you get off your computer and do something about the news. There, is that cute enough for you?” Lysiak said in her YouTube video response.
She has definitely been added to my list of heroes and I wish her well in the future.