Hilde Lysiak

Hilde Kate Lysiak (/ˈliːʃæk/ LEE-shak;[2] born November 2, 2006) is an American journalist who published the Orange Street News, a local newspaper, in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania from 2014 to 2019 and in Patagonia, Arizona from 2019 to 2020.

[7] Initially a family newspaper written in crayon, it grew to include a Facebook page, a website, a YouTube channel, and print subscriptions with postal delivery.

[15] Lysiak is assisted by her older sister Izzy, who edits articles, posts videos and wrote a kids' column for a local newspaper, The Daily Item.

[7] Her father talks with Lysiak about her stories and occasionally helps tighten up a lede, but mostly leaves her in command so that it remains "a kid's paper".

Lysiak went to the crime scene and then hurried home to give her father a report, which he edited and posted on the website with the headline "EXCLUSIVE: MURDER ON NINTH STREET".

[16] In his book LikeWar, Peter Singer uses Lysiak as one of two examples to illustrate the "shift" in journalism "eliminating gatekeepers" in favor of everyone telling their story.

[17] Immediately after Lysiak reported on the local murder, her newspaper's Facebook page received negative comments about a 9-year-old covering such a scene.

Commenters challenged her parents' choices to allow a child to "pretend to be a reporter"; some wrote that she should be playing with a tea set or with dolls.

[23] Lysiak interviewed Nobel Peace Prize recipient Malala Yousafzai during a visit to Providence, Rhode Island.

[24] Lysiak donated all the advertising revenue from the Orange Street News for a month to the Malala Fund which promotes female education.

In June 2016, Lysiak signed a deal with Scholastic to co-write a series of four books with her father under the title Hilde Cracks the Case.

[32][33][34] Apple announced in 2018 that they would be producing the series titled Home Before Dark, with Brooklynn Prince in the lead role of Lysiak.

[36] In March 2016, Lysiak began a GoFundMe site to raise $40,000 for her borough in Selinsgrove to hire an additional police officer in response to increasing vandalism.