Stephanie Nielson is a Latter-Day-Saintmommy blogger, burn survivor, and author of the blog "The NieNie Dialogues". She is also the younger sister of another popular blogger, C. Jane Kendrick.
In 2008, Nielson was in a serious plane crash with her husband Christian and burned over 80% of her body. She was in a coma for three months and then underwent many operations, skin grafts, and physical therapy in a painful, ongoing treatment regimen. Her recovery process led to a large increase in publicity including interviews with Oprah Winfrey, Today, and a popular YouTube "Mormon Message" video for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A year after her accident, she hiked the "Y", a rocky path near her parents' house, with her family and dozens of fans to demonstrate how far she had come.
Blogging style, fanbase, and appeal
Nielson is known for her positive approach to life, especially motherhood, influenced in part by her strong religious convictions. Her fans credit her with inspiring them to become better mothers and for "portraying motherhood as a celebration, not a grind" as well as "...'the highest calling on earth: a job full of color and vibrancy and of the utmost importance.'" As with many other Mormon mommy bloggers, Nielson has attracted attention for her large base of readers who are either not Latter-Day-Saints, not mothers, or both. A Salon article entitled "Why I Can't Stop Reading Mormon Housewife Blogs", by Emily Matchar, a self-described "young, feminist atheist who can't bake a cupcake" but is "addicted" to several Latter-Day-Saint housewife blogs, including Nielson's, examined this interesting phenomena. In response, MMB argued that although the article was right that these blogs provided something missing in other people's lives, this missing piece was spiritual. This interpretation would likely be close to Nielson's own, as she noted on a Latter-Day-Saint radio interview, among other places that she felt her readers were reaching the spirit of God through her writings. Blogging is highly popular among Latter-Day-Saints as a way extending the Latter-Day-Saint community and of spreading the divine word, and the resulting community of Latter-Day-Saint blogs has come to be known as the Bloggernacle.
Projects and causes
Nielson has supported a variety of projects and causes. She promotes the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints and sends a copy of The Book of Mormon to any reader who requests it. Politically, Nielson campaigned for and encouraged her blog readers to support Mitt Romney in the 2012 US presidential election. Nielson published her first book, Heaven is Here, in the spring of 2012. She spoke at the World Congress of Families IX.
