Nellie Bly can be considered a non-fictional hero. Her legacy impacted journalism in what we perceive today as investigative reporting and she contributed to women’s emancipation. Reality is harsh, it can be cruel and ugly. Yet many people grieve over problems, a rare number of individuals use their challenges as a propulsion for growth. That is Nellie Bly. She rose to the challenges that life presented her, and developed genuine character and ability by sidestepping adversity and struggle becoming a hallmark in journalism. Nick Clooney, a reporter and anchorman, addressed the influence of Nellie Bly on American journalism as “[showing] that women could be at least as good, or probably better as reporters, than men… She was perfectly willing to take on the tough spots and she went into awful places in our country, where she did great, bold and brave stories and plays the way for all the women that are now at least first fifty percent…show more content… During late nineteen century, journalism was a men’s job. Nellie knocked in newspapers’ doors asking “What chance does a woman have in journalism?” for many months without success. Gladly the word “impossible” was not part of Nellie’s dictionary, and later she was hired by Pulitzer to work for the leading newspaper at its time, The New York World. At the World, Nellie received the challenge to live in a madhouse to report about it. Nellie’s diary reveals an unknown side of her. In despite her fears of failing, she courageously agreed to report on the madhouse. As an actress, she pretended to be insane in a tenement . The act lead her to Bellevue Hospital, where doctors examined her and sent her to the madhouse in Blackwell’s Island. In Bellevue Hospital, she wrote that being nearsighted helped her to pass as insane, because her pupils were constantly dilated and it fooled the doctors. She spent ten days in Blackwell’s Island, where she kept a