--- title: Girl Without Hands Wins Handwriting Contest description: Girl without hand wins a handwriting contest, the Nicholas Maxim Special Award for Excellent Penmanship. canonical: https://time.com/4320842/girl-handwriting-penmanship-award-no-hands-without/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-06T15:11:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:32:12.435Z og:title: Girl Born With No Hands Wins Award for Her Penmanship og:description: Her writing "stunned" the judges og:url: https://time.com/4320842/girl-handwriting-penmanship-award-no-hands-without/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Girl Born With No Hands Wins Award for Her Penmanship twitter:description: Her writing "stunned" the judges twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Girl Born With No Hands Wins Award for Her Penmanship > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=9040f217-518c-410f-99fb-28a34cee45aa&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer May 6, 2016 3:11 PM UTC  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer May 6, 2016 3:11 PM UTC 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) 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). 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). 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/). > [](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. 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