April 06--It's only Wednesday, but there's no way I'll love a story this week more than I love Hilde Kate Lysiak's.
Lysiak is the 9-year-old reporter from Selinsgrove, Pa., whose Orange Street News scooped the big guys on a homicide not far from her home.
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"She's really motivated," Matthew Lysiak, who covered New York and breaking national stories for the New York Daily News, told The Washington Post about his daughter.
Hilde used to accompany her dad on story assignments, where she developed an appetite for news gathering. When the family moved to Pennsylvania, she created the multimedia Orange Street News. She's been running it since she was 7.
On Saturday, she received a tip about police activity on nearby Ninth Street and headed out with pen, paper and camera in hand. She confirmed the details with neighbors and police and posted a story online before her competitors.
And out came the critics.
"I think this is appalling that u would do a story like this when all the facts are not in yet," one commenter posted to the Orange Street News Facebook page.
"Does no one realize that this is a 9 year old reporting this type of graphic information!" wrote another. "I mean, what parents are encouraging this type of behavior!"
With the help of her older sister, Isabel, Hilde recorded a video response to the critics.
First, she reads aloud some of the comments she received:
"I am disgusted that this cute little girl thinks she is a real journalist. What happened to tea parties?"
"9 year old girls should be playing with dolls, not trying to be reporters."
"Perhaps you are too young to understand the difference between decency/respect and sensationalism."
"Yesterday there was a murder," she says in the video. "It happened just a few blocks from my house. I got the tip from a good source I was able to confirm. Then I went straight to the scene and asked neighbors for more information. ... Because of my work, I was able to inform the people that there's a terrible murder hours before my competition even got to the scene. In fact, some of these adult-run newspapers were reporting the wrong news or no news at all."
Author Michelle Icard and I exchanged emails about Hilde's sheer fabulousness, and Icard reminded me of a relevant passage in "Reviving Ophelia," Mary Pipher's groundbreaking book on adolescent girls.
"Most preadolescent girls are marvelous company because they are interested in everything -- sports, nature, people, music and books," Pipher writes. "Almost all the heroines of girls' literature come from this age group -- Anne of Green Gables, Heidi, Pippi Longstocking and Caddie Woodlawn. ... They can take care of themselves and are not yet burdened with caring for others. They have a brief respite from the female role and can be tomboys, a word that conveys courage, competency and irreverence."
And they certainly don't need to be cute.
"I know some of you want me to just sit down and be quiet because I'm 9," Hilde says in her video. "But if you want me to stop covering news, then you get off your computer and do something about the news. There. Is that cute enough for you?"
Hilde, you are my hero.
hstevens@tribpub.com
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