When you were nine years old, how did you spend your free time? Perhaps by playing truly terrible games of basketball, picking your nose and watching cartoons (that's generally how this 20-something writer spends his weekends). But one third-grader in central Pennsylvania spends her nights and weekends breaking local crime stories and publishing her town's only newspaper.
Hilde Lysiak, a nine-year-old from Selinsgrove, started her own monthly local newspaper, the Orange Street News, and may be the country's most badass journalist. Her publication generally covers more vanilla, day-to-day events in the small town, but on Saturday, she broke her biggest story yet: a murder.
Lysiak detailed her findings in a pretty damn well-written news brief (home girl is nine, people), and produced a short video in which she nonchalantly explains that a man is suspected to have murdered his wife with a hammer.
After publishing and promoting the piece, Lysiak then got the chance to experience one of the most miserable and entertaining parts of being a digital journalist: unruly internet commenters.
The remarks included "This article, paper, whatever the heck it is, is a complete joke! Horrible;" "I'm disgusted that this cute little girl thinks she is a real journalist. What happened to tea parties?" and "9-year-old girls should be playing with dolls, not trying to be reporters." The former mayor of the town even called the article "sensationalist trash," which seems like great form for a former elected official.
Unfazed, Lysiak (with the help of her sister Isabel) produced a short video in which she reads off some of the most bitter comments and defends her integrity as a reporter.
Nasty or rude internet comments can get under the skin of even the most seasoned journalist, but Lysiak handled the negative feedback with incredible poise. Her journalistic chops are not entirely her own doing, though—her father, former New York Daily News reporter Matt Lysiak, has coached her from a young age. According to a piece published in the Columbia Journalism Review last fall, he edits the Orange Street News and would bring Hilde into the newsroom when they lived in New York.
Her sister Isabel also contributes to the publication—albeit with more lifestyle and advice content than hard news. She hosts the "Ask Izzy Advice Column" in which she explores readers questions ranging from "Is the Easter Bunny Real?" (she explains that it isn't) to "Why can't you pee in the pool?"
In any case, if Hilde isn't the most badass journalist in America right now, she's well on her way.