Reporter Hilde Kate Lysiak got a tip off that there was heavy police activity on a street near to her house last Saturday afternoon.
Like any journalist would, she grabbed a pen, notepad and camera, posted something online and beat all her local competitors to the big scoop, with this headline: “EXCLUSIVE: MURDER ON NINTH STREET!”
This didn’t only beat the local daily paper, but she also managed to grab a short video from the crime scene. By Monday morning she was back in school. She’s only nine.
Orange Street News/YouTubeSome people say that journalism has no future, but Hilde is certainly proving them wrong.
She runs the Orange Street News, which focuses on goings-on in her local community of Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania.
The OSN has covered a variety of topics in the past, but this murder was definitely Hilde’s biggest scoop yet.
It seems the youngster got the reporting bug from her father who’s an author and former New York Daily News reporter who took Hilde to his newsroom and to stories he covered around New York, The Washington Post reports.
Her parents simply format her stories and post them on the OSN website, with very little editing.
Orange Street News/YouTubeWe’re pretty damn impressed, but it seems others weren’t so much, as her father, Matthew Lysiak, explained to The Huffington Post:
Everybody loved Hilde universally when she began her paper in November 2014, when she focused on ‘cute’ stories. But as she’s started to report on more serious happenings, people have started criticising her based on her being young and being a girl.
But Hilde was having none of it. So her sister Izzy came up with the idea of making a video of Hilde responding to those who criticised her online, who said things like: “Perhaps you are too young to understand the difference between decency/respect and sensationalism”, and “9-year-old girls should be playing with dolls, not trying to be reporters.”
But it seems Hilde really has no patience for haters. Speaking to Yahoo, she said:
When people say I can’t because I’m a girl, it makes me angry. It makes me angry to think that people think just because I am 9, I can’t do good work.
Oh and she has some pretty strong words for those who don’t like what she’s doing too. Hilde added:
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.
Orange Street News/YouTubeFair play to her- she really takes no shit from anyone!
