Heather "Dooce" Armstrong, pioneering mommy blogger, dies at 47
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Heather Armstrong, also known as "Dooce," in a 2008 interview. Photo: Paul Chinn/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images
Heather Armstrong, the "queen of the mommy bloggers" known as Dooce, died Tuesday in Salt Lake City.
- She was 47 and died from suicide, her partner told the AP.
Details: Armstrong pioneered the the genre of lifestyle and family blogging on her website, Dooce.com, which she started in 2001.
- The site became an internet juggernaut in the early 2000s as readers were drawn to her frank and funny discussions of parenthood and mental illness and her transition away from Utah's conservative religious culture.
- She was among the first online celebrities to make a lucrative living through personal content and as an influencer — though that term didn't exist when she got started. Her website generated tens of thousands of dollars a month through ads and sponsored content, the New York Times reported in 2009.
- By then, she'd landed on Forbes' list of the Most Influential Women in Media and entered a business partnership with HGTV.
Between the lines: Dooce wrote openly on her blog and in books about her mental illness struggles, describing postpartum depression, eating disorders, alcoholism and anxiety.
- In 2019 she chronicled the experimental treatments she underwent at the University of Utah — which she then described as successful.
- Her boyfriend, Pete Ashdown, said she had been sober for 18 months, but recently relapsed.
What they're saying: "She shaped the internet as we know it today — and launched a million storytellers with her willingness to write boldly and unapologetically about the struggles of being human," writer Rebecca Woolf posted on Instagram.
Of note: Controversy arose in 2022 when Armstrong posted an essay that critics described as transphobic. The piece is no longer visible on her site.
Erin's thought bubble: When I interviewed Armstrong for a book launch in 2019, it was about a decade after her blog's popularity peaked — and eons removed from the online culture in which fans accused her of "selling out" for hosting banner ads.
- She described the rise and fall of celebrity as a natural arc, and not a verdict on her original value proposition: that raw insights and unapologetic humor, written by women, could find an audience on this place called the internet.
Yes, but: She told me she was discouraged that the balance of influencer business had shifted so far toward image. When her star rose, she said, it was all about the writing.
- I remember the warmth and fondness that overtook her tone as she discussed her writing process — and how that contrasted with her distaste for anything described as "lifestyle content creation."
The bottom line: It's hard to overstate Armstrong's influence on how personal content, and personality itself, became hard currency online — even if the heart and soul of Dooce lived in the moments before she clicked "post."
If you or someone you know needs support now, call or text 988 or chat with someone at 988lifeline.org. En español. (Deaf and Hard of Hearing: dial 711 then 1-800-273-8255) or the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741.
