--- description: Girl without hand wins a handwriting contest, the Nicholas Maxim Special Award for Excellent Penmanship. title: Girl Born With No Hands Wins Award for Her Penmanship image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Newsfeed](/tag/time-section-newsfeed/) ## Newsfeed Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Girl Born With No Hands Wins Award for Her Penmanship  by [Olivia B. Waxman](/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Staff Writer May 6, 2016 3:11 PM CUT  by [Olivia B. Waxman](/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Staff Writer May 6, 2016 3:11 PM CUT A seven year old in Virginia who was born with no hands recently won a national award for her penmanship. Anaya Ellick, a first grader at Greenbrier Christian Academy in Chesapeake, won a Nicholas Maxim Special Award for Excellence in Manuscript Penmanship. She received [$1,000](https://www.facebook.com/ZanerBloser "undefined") and a large trophy. Ellick, who does not need prosthetics to write, “holds a pencil between her arms and stands at her desk to get the right angle for writing,” [CNN reports](http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/06/us/girl-no-hands-handwriting-contest-winner/index.html "undefined"). The quality of her script “stunned” the judges, Kathleen Wright, director of the competition run by educational company Zaner-Bloser, [told ABC News](http://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/handless-year-wins-national-handwriting-competition/story?id=38898269 "undefined"). Ellick also ties her own shoes and dresses herself, her parents, Bianca Middleton and Gary Ellick, [told WTKR](http://wtkr.com/2016/05/04/local-student-born-without-hands-earns-penmanship-award/ "undefined"). > [](https://twitter.com/ZanerBloser/status/728285927026655233) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4320842/girl-handwriting-penmanship-award-no-hands-without/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4320842/girl-handwriting-penmanship-award-no-hands-without/"},"headline":"Girl Born With No Hands Wins Award for Her Penmanship","datePublished":"2016-05-06T15:11:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:32:12.435Z","description":"Her writing \"stunned\" the judges","url":"https://time.com/4320842/girl-handwriting-penmanship-award-no-hands-without/","keywords":["Newsfeed","society"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. Waxman","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4320842/girl-handwriting-penmanship-award-no-hands-without/","name":"Girl Born With No Hands Wins Award for Her Penmanship"}}]}] ```