The Women Challenge by Exoticca

We are passionate about the world. We love challenges. We are fans of Nellie Bly. In 1889 she taught us that the world is ours to discover, and much more! We just need to really want it. As a woman and traveling solo, Bly beat Jules Verne’s record. Her unforgettable journey around the world lasted 72 days. Departing from New Jersey to London and from there she traveled to France, Italy, Egypt through the Suez Canal, Singapore, Hong Kong and back to the United States through the Pacific. If she made it possible then, you can do much more today.

Beat your world record by traveling at your whim. Whether you are a woman or a man, whether alone or accompanied. If you really want to travel: just do it. At the end of the day, everything starts with a small click. That little push that challenges us and encourages us to discover a world of surprises.

Breaking down barriers in International Women’s Day

We have the data, Nellie Bly, journalist, feminist, known for being the first woman to go around the world in 1889, 130 years ago! In addition, surpassing the record in 8 days compared to the one raised by Jules Verne in his novel “Around the World in 80 Days”. Now let’s get to know the story in its context.

Elizabeth Jane Cochran, Nellie Bly

Her real name was Elizabeth and she was born in Pennsylvania in 1864. She was part of a modest American family. Thanks to her way of thinking and seeing the world she found a place in the world of journalism. How she did it? After a sexist column in the Pittsburgh Dispatch newspaper, she sent a letter to the editor using the pseudonym “Lonely Orphan Girl”. Realizing the quality of this, the editor would offer her to join the newspaper as a reporter. It would be he himself who gave her the pseudonym of Nellie Bly to Lizzie.

However, after some research articles, she was relegated to the women’s section, which led her to quit her job and travel to New York. There she applied for a job at The New York World, by Joseph Pulitzer, who hired her.

In her first job at The World, she entered a psychiatric asylum that she had been commissioned to write an article about. In the report that she wrote entitled “Ten days in a madhouse” she reported several cases of abuse that happened inside the asylum. Thus, her style to write, undercover journalism, would be born.

Around the world in 72 days

In 1888, 15 years of Jules Verne’s successful novel “Around the World in 80 Days” was fulfilled. So, The New York World was quite interested in reporting a feat like this. Who would be responsible for carrying out this work? We are on the International Women’s Day so it is clear to us that the protagonist will be a woman. The one in charge was Nellie Bly. She represented the female gender and with an adventurous and investigative spirit would be the chosen one. So, she begins this adventure of more than 40,000 kilometers around the world.

The route

Nellie Bly left New York on November 14, 1989. She crossed the Atlantic to reach Southampton, then she took a train to London. She would pass the English Channel to disembark in Calais. Travel by train to Paris stopping in Amiens where she met Jules Verne himself, who believed that the feat would be impossible to achieve. So, he said to Nellie: “Miss if you are capable of doing it in 79 days, I will congratulate you publicly”.

Convinced that she would succeed, Nellie Bly continued her adventure through Brindisi in Italy, crossing the Mediterranean, the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, and the entire ocean to reach Colombo in Sri Lanka. She visited Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Yokohama. Then she crosses the Pacific to arrive in San Francisco.

She returned to New York on January 25, 1890, after 72 days, 6 hours, 11 minutes, and a few seconds. Making a record unthinkable at that time, much more for a woman who sailed alone, without the accompaniment or protection of any man.

This feat made Nellie Bly a true inspiration for women around the world.

A world with many Nellie Bly

A few months ago, Cassandra De Pecol became the first woman to travel all the countries of the world at 27 years of age. Like Nellie Bly, Cassie has been a woman who has empowered other women. And we live in a world that, although it continues to have a gap of inequality and sexism, is increasingly a world of women. On this International Women’s Day, we want to invite you to be another Nellie Bly. You can leave a mark, travel, meet, explore the world and surround yourself. Let’s go to know cultures that have left us an invaluable legacy.

The feat of Nellie Bly happened 130 years ago and today we keep reminding her to give women the importance they deserve in the history of humanity. What are you waiting to start your next adventure? Let’s go to travel the world!