Mommy Blogger Heather Armstrong, Also Known as 'Dooce', Dies by Suicide at 47

By Daniel S. Levine

Heather Armstrong, the pioneering mommy blog author behind Dooce, has died. She was 47. Armstrong, who was open about her struggles with alcoholism and depression on her website, is believed to have taken her own life.

Her boyfriend, Pete Ashdown, told The Associated Press he found her Tuesday night at their Salt Lake City home. He claimed she died by suicide. She had recently relapsed after being sober for over 18 months. He did not share more details.

"Heather Brooke Hamilton aka Heather B. Armstrong aka Dooce aka love of my life. July 19, 1975 – May 9, 2023," Ashdown wrote on her Instagram page. "'It takes an ocean not to break.' Hold your loved ones close and love everyone else."

Armstrong began Deece in 2001, using a nickname she earned for misspelling "dude" in chats with friends, reports The New York Times. It was just as the personal blog trend was taking off, and Armstrong gained attention for the frank discussion of her life. A year after starting the blog, she lost her job at a tech startup. Her personal experience even inspired the phrase "Dooced."

While the experience made her feel guilty, it opened up new opportunities for herself and many others whom she inspired to share their personal stories on blogs. She reached the height of her popularity in 2009 when she appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show and was pulling in over 8.5 million readers a month. She soon became known as the "queen of the mommy bloggers" and was profiled in mainstream media. Forbes included her on a list of the most influential women in media.

Armstrong was born Heather Brooke Hamilton and raised in Bartlett, Tennessee, a Memphis suburb. She graduated from Brigham Young University and left the Mormon Church. Armstrong's split from the church was one of the more difficult topics she covered. Her struggle with postpartum depression after the birth of her first child was at the center of her 2009 memoir It Sucked and Then I Cried: How I Had a Baby, a Breakdown, and a Much Needed Margarita.

In 2012, Armstrong shocked readers by announcing she and her husband and business partner, Jon Armstrong, were separating. They finalized their divorce later that year. The two shared children Leta, 19, and Marlo, 13. Armstrong began dating Ashdown about six years ago and lived with him and her two children. Ashdown's three children from a previous marriage also lived with them.

Dooce's popularity began to wane in 2017, just as social media took attention away from blogs. Her depression became worse and she joined a clinical trial at the University of Utah's Neuropsychiatric Institute. "I was feeling like life was not meant to be lived," Armstrong told Vox in 2019. "When you are that desperate, you will try anything. 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."

The treatment involved her being put in a chemically induced coma for 15 minutes at a time during 10 sessions. It inspired her 2019 book, The Valedictorian of Being Dead: The True Story of Dying Ten Times to Live. "I want people with depression to feel like they are seen, especially here in Utah, where teen suicide is an epidemic," Armstrong told Vox of the book.

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Armstrong published what would be her final Dooce.com post on April 6. It was, just as readers had come to expect in the past 16 years, a revealing post about her sobriety journey. She also praised Leta and her daughter's incredible taste in music. "Sobriety was not some mystery I had to solve," Armstrong reflected. "It was simply looking at all my wounds and learning how to live with them." 

If you or someone you know is in crisis, please call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. The previous Lifeline phone number (1-800-273-8255) will always remain available.

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