Writer & 'Dooce' Founder Heather B. Armstrong Has Died At Age 47

Heather B. Armstrong, the founder of Dooce and early pioneer of blogging and modern-day internet influencing, has died. Armstrong was 47.

Armstrong wrote candidly about her life on her blog in the early aughts and would later chronicle motherhood.

The "It Sucked, And Then I Cried" author was unabashedly committed to openly sharing her life. She documented every bit of motherhood, especially those not-so-picture-perfect moments. Armstrong shared two children with her ex-husband, Leta, 19, and Marlo, 13.

She was also unabashedly committed to sharing her experiences with depression and sobriety. Her 2019 book "The Valedictorian Of Being Dead" chronicled Armstrong's participation in an "experimental study" which put her in a "chemically-induced coma" for 15 minutes two years earlier.

Armstrong's partner, Pete Ashdown, announced her passing on Instagram on Wednesday. Armstrong frequently discussed her relationship on her parenting and lifestyle podcast, Manic Rambling Spiral.

"Heather Brooke Hamilton, aka Heather B. Armstrong, aka Dooce, aka the love of my life. July 19th, 1975- May 9th, 2023," Ashdown captioned the post. "'It takes an ocean not to break.'' Hold your loved ones close and love everybody else."

Armstrong's last post on Dooce detailed her six-month sobriety milestone in October 2021. Armstrong founded Dooce two decades earlier.

Armstrong chronicled countless details about motherhood, capturing both the mundane details of everyday life and those moments swept under the rug at the time. She had more than 8 million readers by the end of the decade.

In a 2019 profile from Vox, Armstrong summed up her writing on Dooce: "I looked at myself as someone who happened to be able to talk about parenthood in a way many women wanted to be able to but were afraid to."

She wrote freely about depression and divorce (she and her husband and business partner, Jon, divorced in 2012), and her readership reportedly plummeted. The reception to her divorce news would contribute to what was, as Vox described, "A deep and treatment-resistant depression."

Of her depression, she said, "I was feeling like life was not meant to be lived. When you are that desperate, you will try anything," she continues, referring to the aforementioned clinical trial. "I thought my kids deserved to have a happy, healthy mother, and I needed to know that I had tried all options to be that for them."

She continued, "I want people with depression to feel like they are seen, especially in Utah, where teen suicide is an epidemic." (via Vox)

Armstrong lived in Salt Lake City up until her death. She also wrote extensively about her experience with the Mormon church while growing up in Memphis. According to the AP, she left the church after graduating from Brigham Young University and moving to Los Angeles.

Ashdown told the AP that Armstrong had died by suicide in their Salt Lake City home.