Heather Armstrong

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Heather Armstrong
Born July 19, 1975
Nationality American
Other names Dooce
Occupation Blogger

Heather B. Armstrong (née Hamilton) born July 19, 1975, is an American blogger who resides in Salt Lake City, Utah. She writes under the pseudonym of Dooce. Armstrong explains that "Dooce" came from her inability to quickly spell "dude" during IM chats with her former co-workers.

Armstrong was raised a Mormon in Memphis, Tennessee, and majored in English at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, graduating in 1997. She then moved to Los Angeles, California to work. Armstrong married web designer Jon Armstrong and returned to Salt Lake City to work as a consultant and designer. They have two daughters together: Leta Elise (born 2/3/2004)[1], and Marlo Iris (born 6/14/2009)[2].

Armstrong was featured by Forbes magazine among 30 honorees on its list of "The Most Influential Women In Media" for 2009.[3][4]

Contents

[edit] "Dooced"

In 2002, Armstrong ignited a fierce debate about privacy issues when she was fired from her job as a web designer and graphic artist because she had written satirical accounts of her experiences at a dot-com startup on her personal blog, dooce.com [5]. She did not challenge her termination and has refrained from identifying her place of employment in interviews.

Armstrong warns her fellow bloggers:

I started this website in February 2001. A year later I was fired from my job for this website because I had written stories that included people in my workplace. My advice to you is BE YE NOT SO STUPID.

[edit] Dooce.com

Armstrong has written extensively and humorously of her struggle with depression, entering a mental health hospital, as well as her pregnancies, parenthood, skin cancer and her experiences with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

In 2004, Armstrong accepted text advertisements on her website for the first time. In 2005, Armstrong accepted graphic ads and wrote that the revenue from the advertisements would be her family's principal source of income while her husband made the transition to manage her advertising and business.

[edit] Books

In late 2005, Armstrong entered into negotiations with Kensington Books to produce two books, one of which was to be a memoir of early parenthood. The negotiations broke down in May 2006, and Kensington sued to force Armstrong to fulfill the terms of the unsigned contract. In October 2006 both parties agreed to a settlement which allowed Armstrong to seek another publisher [6][7].

Kensington released a book of essays "Things I Learned About My Dad: In Therapy" on April 29, 2008, edited by Heather B. Armstrong. # ISBN 0758216599 # ISBN 978-0758216595 [8]

Her second book, "It Sucked and Then I Cried: How I Had a Baby, a Breakdown, and a Much Needed Margarita" was released on March 24, 2009 and published by Simon Spotlight Entertainment. It reached #16 on the New York Times Bestseller List for April 12th, 2009. [9]

[edit] Other ventures

Armstrong is a music columnist and consultant for the Alpha Mom media network. She and her husband run Armstrong Media, LLC, a web design and content-generation business. She is also a panelist for the online video series Momversation.

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://dooce.com/archives/daily/02_05_2004.html
  2. ^ http://dooce.com/2009/06/15/introducing
  3. ^ http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_12862120
  4. ^ http://www.forbes.com/2009/07/14/most-influential-women-in-media-forbes-woman-power-women-oprah-winfrey_slide_27.html
  5. ^ "Summary about Dooce By BBC". http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4659469.stm#dooce. 
  6. ^ "Dooced Again: Blogger Settles w/Jilted Publisher". http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/authors/dooced_again_blogger_settles_wjilted_publisher_45490.asp. 
  7. ^ "Dooce.com: Here Goes Nothing". http://www.dooce.com/archives/daily/10_12_2006.html. 
  8. ^ [1]
  9. ^ "Adult New York Times Bestseller Lists for 2009". http://www.hawes.com/2009/2009.htm. 

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heather_Armstrong"