An Interview with Author Hilde Kate Lysiak

Hilde Kate Lysiak is a fifteen-year-old journalist and founder of the wildly popular and successful, Orange Street News and now Hilde has written a memoir entitled, Hilde on the Record: Memoir of a Kid Crime Reporter, and we here at NTG were lucky enough to sit down with Hilde to talk about her new book and so much more.
 
NTG: Let’s talk a little bit, about what got you into writing?
 
Hilde Kate Lysiak: When I growing up my Dad traveled around the country as crime reporter for the New York Daily News and I was his sidekick. I traveled everywhere with him, from door knocks in Harlem to Trayvon Martin in Florida. I was also intense I quickly became addicted to the rush. When he quit his job as a reporter to write books I didn't want to stop. That is how I created the Orange Street News. My first several issues were written by crayon, but by the time I was eight I had a print copy.
 
NTG: What motivated you to start your paper The Orange Street News?
 
Hilde Kate Lysiak: I had been reporting for as long as I could remember and when my Dad moved us to a small town I couldn't imagine stopping.
 
NTG: What are you most excited for readers to discover in your memoir?
 
Hilde Kate Lysiak: I learned some valuable lessons during my eight years of reporting and being thrust into the national spotlight at such a young age.  One of the lessons I learned was about how our self-perceptions, how the way we view ourselves, can be shaped by those around us if we aren’t steadfast in our authentic selves.
 
The narrative the media created about me painted this picture of this prodigy child with a perfect life. But the reality was far different.
 
On the outside my life seemed perfect. I had a four-book deal with Scholastic. I was being flown around the country to give speeches and a television show was made about my life.
 
But on the inside, I could feel something changing inside me. Something unfamiliar and dark. At first the thought that I could be depressed struck me as stupid. But when I began to research, I was shocked to learn that not only was I not alone, but I was dealing with a growing problem that was literally killing my generation - especially teenage girls between the ages of 12 and 17 - who last year saw a fifty percent increase in suicide attempts. And that number is probably low, considering the shame attached to suicide.
 
My hope is that in telling my story I can help open up a conversation and maybe even inspire some who might have been going through what I went through to get help.
 
 
NTG: You really were a pioneer of citizen journalism when your murder mystery story broke and went viral all over the world! How do you think this type of news coverage has developed since your experience, and what do you think are a few of the biggest advantages / disadvantages of this type of media?
 
Hilde Kate Lysiak: I have a lot of optimism about the future. I believe the media of tomorrow will be better than the media of today. But one thing that does concern me is the growing acceptance of the censorship we are seeing in people who have different points of view. Reporting news is ultimately about the truth and giving the press freedom to find it.

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