Food Blogger, 9, Prompts School-Lunch Overhaul

She's only nine years old, but Martha Payne's reporting has already shaken things up at her school. The Scottish writer of the NeverSeconds blog posted reviews and camera-phone photos of some rather gross-looking cafeteria lunches; her work brought some 2 million visitors to her site. The attention prompted her school to step up its meal efforts—but for a while, it looked like the blog was over.

In a "Goodbye" post yesterday, Payne announced that her teacher had told her she "could not take any more photos of my school dinners because of a headline in a newspaper." The headline in question, from Scotland's Daily Record, said it was "time to fire the dinner ladies," fueling worries among her school's lunch staff. Payne's post brought supportive tweets from the likes of celeb chef Jamie Oliver as well as nonprofit groups, Mashable notes, not to mention a piece at Wired. Looks like the outcry worked: A local official now says he's changed his mind and Payne can keep right on blogging. (More Martha Payne stories.)