10-Year-Old Journalist Hilde Lysiak Who Runs Her Own Publication 'Orange Street News' Becomes Internet Hero

'I’ve been reporting on hard drugs recently.'

A 10-year-old journalist who runs her own news publication has a new flurry of fans on social media after her badass comments about breaking stories. 

Hilde Lysiak, from Pennsylvania, US, started a newspaper for her neighbourhood - Orange Street News - back in 2014.

Many people around the world first became aware of the young journo in April 2016, when she broke a murder news story, before any other publications. 

But it was a recent interview with the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) that brought the 10-year-old back in the spotlight.

“I want to be able to cover more crime stories,” Lysiak told the publication. “I’ve been reporting on hard drugs recently, but there have been leads I haven’t been able to follow because of my age.”

Reminder: She’s 10.

Journalist Mike Rosenberg, from the US, tweeted out screenshots showing parts of the interview and called Lysiak his “new hero”.

Rosenberg’s tweet had nearly 25,000 retweets and 71,000 likes, making Lysiak’s journalistic abilities even more famous across the web.

In the SPJ interview, Lysiak - whose dad worked as a reporter for the New York Daily News - spoke about one of the favourite stories she had ever broken.

“The story I’m most proud of is the investigation on my local fire station,” she explained. “After that story ran, officials sent me messages threatening to have my paper taken away if I kept writing about it.

“But I didn’t let them scare me. Eventually, the truth about the corruption at the fire station came out, but it took a lot of hard work and digging.”

She said the biggest setback to her reporting is her age, because she is unable to access information or go to certain places to find a story.

Orange Street News is a family affair, and Lysiak even employs her sister (who gets $25/£18 a week) to do the social media and video editing.

“The best part of having a sister that works for me is that I get to boss her around,” Lysiak added.

Lysiak reports online, but also runs a monthly printed publication that people can subscribe to for $14.99/£11.30 per year. 

You can follow Lysiak on Twitter or read her stories on the Orange Street News website. Read her full interview with SPJ here.

Before You Go

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