4 months ago
Heather Brooke Armstrong, nan writer known arsenic “Dooce” who gained fame successful nan early days of blogging, died Tuesday. She was 47. Her family announced her decease in an Instagram post connected Wednesday.
Her boyfriend, Pete Ashdown, told nan Associated Press she died by suicide. “She had a relapse precocious and that’s what really spiraled her down. She was sober for complete 18 months, past started to sneak backmost into it. And past successful nan past period she went afloat tilt,” Ashdown told AP.
No origin of decease was given. A fluid and individual writer, she had agelong described her struggles pinch terrible slump and alcoholism. She had much precocious been criticized for promoting anti-trans sentiments connected her blog dooce.com.
A azygous station remains connected nan dooce.com site, posted connected April 6, successful which she writes astir nan symptom of her struggle pinch alcoholism. “Early sobriety resembles surviving life arsenic a clam without its shell,” she wrote, going connected to constitute astatine magnitude astir her girl and station euphony videos that were meaningful to her.
Recently known arsenic Heather Hamilton, she utilized her joined sanction Heather Armstrong for overmuch of her career. She became known arsenic “queen of nan mommy bloggers,” pinch a ample assemblage of readers crossed nan country. But earlier she had children, she was fired successful 2002 from her Los Angeles web improvement occupation for blogging astir her institution and co-workers. The net dubbed her firing for blogging arsenic getting “dooced,” which became shorthand for being dismissed for penning astir a workplace.
After returning to Salt Lake City, wherever she’d grown up, Hamilton began penning astir nan ups and downs of motherhood and marriage. As blogs became a celebrated shape of media, dooce.com reportedly reached much than 8 cardinal viewers a period and earned her much than $100,000 a twelvemonth from ads connected nan blog.
Though immoderate readers criticized her usage of her children’s photos and stories arsenic worldly for her blog, she became a celebrated media figure, guesting connected “The Oprah Winfrey Show” successful 2009 and being named 1 of nan astir influential women successful media by Forbes that aforesaid year. She went connected to do branded contented for respective companies, including Ford, Nintendo and Clorox.
Hamilton besides wrote 3 books astir her experiences pinch parenting and depression, “The Valedictorian of Death,” “Dear Daughter” and “It Sucked Then I Cried.”
If you aliases anyone you cognize is having thoughts of suicide, please telephone 988 aliases telephone nan National Suicide Prevention Lifeline astatine 1-800-273-8255 aliases spell to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources.
