Meet Zaila: First African American Spelling Bee Champion

The Scripps National Spelling Bee of the USA is the most prestigious spelling competition for kids in the world. Winning it requires long hours of practice and a familiarity with really tough words. This competition has a long history of winners being South Asian, predominantly Indian Americans. But this year, a surprise winner came up in Zaila Avant-garde, a 14-year-old from New Orleans, Louisiana. She is the first African American to win the competition.  

How did Zaila win the Spelling Bee?  
Zaila’s winning entry was the word ‘murraya’, which is a type of tropical tree. But before that, she had to tackle spellings like ‘querimonious’ and ‘solidungulate’. There were 11 finalists, who were slowly eliminated as they failed to spell the assigned words. The final round was quite a battle between 14-year-old Zaila and 12-year-old Chaitra Thummala. But ‘murraya’ was a word that Chaitra was unfamiliar with, so the crown went to Zaila. The cash prize amount was $50,000, so Zaila is a rich little girl now. Though her win was historical for African American students in the USA, another Black girl had won it earlier. The Spelling Bee had gone to 12 year old Jody-Ann Maxwell of Jamaica in 1998. However, Zaila’s win is especially important for African Americans form USA.  

How did Zaila prepare for the Spelling Bee?  
Zaila Avant-garde’s father realized her aptitude for spelling when she was 10 years old. She tried out the Spelling Bee in 2019, but lost when she could not spell ‘vagaries’. In fact 2019, 8 children came joint-first for the first time in the Spelling Bee's history. The tournament was cancelled last year because of the pandemic. But Zaila was not discouraged. She practised spelling and vocabulary for 7 hours every day, spelling out an average of 13,000 words. Still it’s a hobby, and she prioritizes basketball over it. In fact, Zaila is already considered a promising basketball player. She already holds three world records for dribbling multiple balls at once. Zaila is a known face, as she has appeared in an advertisement with the NBA megastar Stephen Curry.