Heather Armstrong, founder of mommy blog Dooce, dies at 47

[sds71]

"Heather Brooke Hamilton aka Heather B. Armstrong aka dooce aka love of my life. July 19, 1975 — May 9, 2023," the caption began. "'It takes an ocean not to break.' Hold your loved ones close and love everyone else."

Armstrong died by suicide, her boyfriend Pete Ashdown told The Associated Press, saying he found her Tuesday night at their Salt Lake City home.

No further details have been shared. Armstrong is survived by daughters Leta, 19, and Marlo, 14, and ex-husband, Jon Armstrong.

Mommy blogger Heather Armstrong, known as Dooce to fans, dead at 47

The pioneering mommy blogger Heather Armstrong, known as Dooce to fans, has died at home in Salt Lake City. She was 47. Her live-in partner, Pete Ashdown, confirmed her death by suicide. He said he found her Tuesday night. Armstrong had laid bare her struggles as a mother and her battles with...

apnews.com

 

[arielilane]

Heather Armstrong, an explosively popular writer who, under the name Dooce, gave millions of readers intimate glimpses of her joys and challenges in parenthood and marriage, as well as of her harrowing struggles with depression, has died at 47. https://nyti.ms/3VVbLJR

https://twitter.com/x/status/1656413156447485954

 

[arielilane]

Heather Armstrong, mommy blogger known for her website 'Dooce,' dies by suicide at 47

Heather Armstrong was one of the first bloggers to document motherhood with her website Dooce.com.

abcnews.go.com

Heather Armstrong, one of the first bloggers to document the ups and downs of motherhood, has died at the age of 47.

Armstrong, known to her fans by the name of her website, Dooce.com, died by suicide, according to her partner, Pete Ashdown.

"Heather B. Hamilton (Armstrong) was a brilliant, funny, compassionate writer who struggled with mental-health and alcoholism. She saved many lives through her authorship on depression, but in the end could not save herself," Ashdown told ABC News in a statement. "She was a loving companion and mother who was always open for a new adventure or concert."

Ashdown continued, "Heather believed that ending her life was wrong, but in the end, her judgment was clouded by alcohol. She was loved and will be deeply missed."

Ashdown announced Armstrong's death Wednesday with a post on the blogger's Instagram page.

 

[ChatteringBirds]

Sincere condolences to her family.

IMO Depression, anxiety, addiction etc. are health-battles that some people fight very hard, every moment really. If the battle is lost, it's not in any way about right or wrong but rather like any other health battle. And the person fighting may reach a point of literally being unable to fight anymore.

 

[arielilane]

https://click.convertkit-mail.com/q...h7h0p8xlggi8/aHR0cHM6Ly93YXBvLnN0LzNuS25mVFM=

I began reading Dooce.com in 2002. That year, the blog’s author, Heather B. Armstrong, was fired after her co-workers discovered she’d been writing satirical posts about the Los Angeles office where she worked during the dot-com boom.

She was writing on Blogger, which had been launched only three years before. In those early days of the World Wide Web, everything was so new. We all felt a bit like the man in Plato’s allegorical cave, blog-posting our way into the internet’s blinding, bewildering light.
The news of Heather’s firing went what we now call viral, and the phrase “dooced” was coined to describe getting fired for what you posted online. This was back when it was a novelty rather than an everyday occurrence. The notoriety helped make Heather a star.

I was in college then, just seven years younger than Heather and also writing on Blogger, posting book reviews and what I thought were funny political posts, even though I’m now sure they weren’t. Most of those posts were modeled on Dave Barry because I didn’t have other models for the type of writing I wanted to do.

Then, here came Dooce. Heather’s writing was sack-of-meat raw, raunchy and transcendently real. She wrote fiercely and furiously. She kept posting after she was fired. She was one of the first women to be branded a “mommy blogger” and, later, a mom “influencer.” She was No. 26 on Forbes’s 2009 list of the most influential women in media. She wrote books. She became a writer on her own terms.

Heather died on Tuesday at age 47. Her partner, Pete Ashdown, told the Associated Press that she died by suicide after years of struggling with depression.