Who runs the world? GIRLS! GIRLS! Zaila Avant-garde is unfazed by stress, whether it is dribbling a basketball or recognizing obscure Latin or Greek origins. On Thursday night, the 14-year-old from Harvey, Louisiana, won the Scripps National Spelling Bee, becoming the first African American winner. She is also the second Black champion in the 96-year history of the competition.
Zaila classified spelling as a “side interest,” even though she practiced for seven hours every day. She is a basketball prodigy who aspires to play in the WNBA one day. She has three Guinness World Records for simultaneously dribbling several balls. After spelling the winning word, “murraya,” a genus of tropical Asiatic and Australian plants, Zaila twirled and leaped with delight.
There was only one word, “nepeta,” an Old World mint genus, gave her any challenge. She leaped even higher when she got it correctly than when she received the prize.
“I think the more that the achievements and triumphs of women are promoted and publicized, 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,” Zaila said in an interview last year.
Zaila Avant-garde expressed her desire to play in the WNBA at the moment. Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani activist and Nobel Laureate, as well as tennis champions Serena Williams and Coco Gauff, are among her inspirations.
Chaitra Thummala, a 12-year-old from Frisco, Texas, finished second in the competition on Thursday night. Cole Shafer-Ray, a 20-year-old Yale student and 2015 Scripps runner-up, coaches both Zaila and Chaitra.
Jody-Anne Maxwell of Jamaica was the only previous Black champion of the bee in 1998. Zaila Avant-garde also ends a run of at least one champion or co-champion of South Asian ancestry dating back to 2008.
