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 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.
The quality of her script “stunned” the judges, Kathleen Wright, director of the competition run by educational company Zaner-Bloser, told ABC News.
Ellick also ties her own shoes and dresses herself, her parents, Bianca Middleton and Gary Ellick, told WTKR.
More Must-Reads from TIME
- Breaking Down the 2024 Election Calendar
- How Nayib Bukele’s ‘Iron Fist’ Has Transformed El Salvador
- What if Ultra-Processed Foods Aren’t as Bad as You Think?
- How Ukraine Beat Russia in the Battle of the Black Sea
- Long COVID Looks Different in Kids
- How Project 2025 Would Jeopardize Americans’ Health
- What a $129 Frying Pan Says About America’s Eating Habits
- The 32 Most Anticipated Books of Fall 2024
Write to Olivia B. Waxman at olivia.waxman@time.com