heather armstrong, 1975-2023
For those of us who began blogging in the early-to-mid aughts, Heather Armstrong (aka @dooce) was an icon, showing those of us who relished writing in long form what could be done with this new, groundbreaking "web 2.0" media. Funny and irreverent, she was undoubtedly the most well-known of those of us who wrote and shared our stories of what it meant to be young parents in the new millennium. There weren't very many of us online at that time ("what's a blog?" was the most common question we got from friends and families who learned we were -- gasp! -- writing on the “world wide web”), and a sort of fraternal sister-/brotherhood emerged among those early bloggers, one that very much continues to this day.
Heather passed this week, and many of us in that fraternity are absolutely stunned. In the end and despite everything, she was always unfailingly kind to me.
May she rest in peace, and may her kids and family find comfort and love. ✨✨✨
An early blogging inspiration and colleague is gone.