True or False? By the time she was twenty-five, Nellie Bly was one of the most famous women in the world!True! Daring Nellie Bly took on the challenge of racing around the world in eighty days. She wrote about the people and lands she encountered and captured the imagination of the world. She traveled to Mexico and became one of the first female international correspondents. She disguised herself as a madwoman to investigate harsh conditions in state insane asylums. Her writing helped bring about social reforms. Read these other History Maker Bios Explorers and AdventurersNeil Armstrong, Daniel Boone, Christopher Columbus, Davy Crockett, Amelia Earhart, Matthew Henson, Lewis and Clark, Ferdinand Magellan, Annie Oakley, Juan Ponce de Leon, Sir Walter Raleigh.