14-year-old Louisianan, Zaila Avant-garde, is the first African-American to claim the crown.
Avant-garde won by correctly spelling murraya (a flowering plant). To get there, she also had to spell words like nepeta (hum, another flowering plant) and solidungulate (an animal with an uncloven foot).
https://youtu.be/Yckpd1shcHc
It isn’t her first championship, either. An accomplished basketball player, Avant-gard holds the Guinness World Record for the most bounce juggles completed in a minute–twice over. She bounced juggled three basketballs 231 times in a minute and four basketballs 255 times in the same timeframe.
While there isn’t an asterisk on those records, there is concerning the spelling bee win. In 1998, Jamaica’s Jody-Anne Maxwell won the Bee, making her the first Black winner. Avant-garde is the first African-American winner.
Avant-garde also has an Instagram following (14k), which means people pay attention to what she does and has to say. “I think the more that the achievements and triumphs of women are promoted and publicized,” she said, “the more likely it is that other girls all around the world will see that they can do any and everything that they put their minds to.”
C-O-N-G-R-A-T-U-L-A-T-I-O-N-S, Zaila!
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Postscript: Today is my birthday, and Avant-guard’s win is a birthday gift to me. But the larger issue–and my lifelong quest–is for people to treat each other with kindness, irrespective of their skin. All people are created equal.
