Who Is Lizzy Jane?
Who Is Lizzy Jane?
"Lizzy Jane", our fictional explorer for our American Heritage Adventure Letter subscription, travels to some of the most beautiful places in the United States of America including many of our amazing National Parks, but who is she?
Who Do You Think She Is?
Sure Lizzy Jane is truly fictional and a made up character. We love for our subscribers to use their own imaginations in determining WHO they think she is.
Is she a young adult or a 60 year old grandma out exploring the world or somewhere in between?
What ethnicity is she? Long hair or short? Exploring in designer shoes and outerwear or leggings and a National Parks t-shirt? Ponytail or ball cap?
So many ideas to think through in coming up with your own idea of who exactly Lizzy Jane is and that's just the way we want it!
We want you and your kids to identify with Lizzy Jane... to see yourselves in her shoes, going on her adventures. We think this way it will be much more fun for you!
All this being said, we've been getting the question "Who is Lizzy Jane?" more & more recently, so we're letting the cat out of the bag and giving you the scoop on the real life American explorer who is our inspiration for Lizzy Jane!
Meet the Real-Life Lizzy Jane!
She's a "fictional character" named after the famous American journalist Nellie Bly who traveled around the world in 72 days from November 14, 1889-January 25, 1890!
Nellie's journey took her by boat, ferry, train, buggy, and so much more as she traveled the world. She even adopted a pet monkey named McGinty!
Now, you're probably wondering to yourself right now, how did we get the name "Lizzy Jane" from Nellie Bly? Well, Nellie Bly was actually a pen name...a name used by an author that is different from his or her real name. Nellie's real name was actually Elizabeth Jane Cochrane Seaman. And now you can quite easily see how we came up with the name Lizzy Jane!
So as you enjoy our American Heritage Adventure Letters, it may be fun to do a study on Nellie Bly so you can learn more about this brave woman who read Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne and then pitched the idea of trying to break that record to her editor at the New York World.
And break that record she did, even with a side trip to meet Jules Verne in person at his request when she arrived in Europe!
Learn More About Nellie Bly!
Here are few resources you might enjoy as you learn more about Nellie Bly:
Read our Heritage Letter from Nellie Bly!
You'll learn about Nellie's amazing trip around the world when you receive this letter written from her perspective in the mail. It's history education meets historical reenactment in your mailbox! You're sure to fall in love with the story of this brave American journalist as you read this letter.
Read a Book about Nellie Bly!
There are 3 books you won't want to miss as you study the life of Nellie Bly:
A Race Around the World by Caroline Starr Rose and illustrated by Alexandra Bye
This book tells the tale of Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland. Bisland left the US heading west on a mission to beat Nellie (who was heading east) on her trip around the world. This book compares the two ladies journeys and the beautiful places they saw as they traveled around the world. And because she won the race, Nellie's name is the one we remember today!
Who Was Nellie Bly? by Margaret Gurevich
From the popular line of "Who Was" book series comes Who Was Nellie Bly? to satisfy all of your questions about the American journalist who set the world record for traveling around the world in 1890.
Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
Read the classic story that inspired Nellie's trip around the world. You'll love reading about the adventures of Verne's character Phileas Fogg as he travels around the world in 1872. You'll love this illustrated edition!
Bonus, read Nellie's first hand account of her travels around the world:
Around the World in Seventy-Two Days: A Pioneering Journey Beyond Boundaries: A Global Adventure of Courage and Determination by Nellie Bly
