First Grader with No Hands Wins Handwriting Contest

A 7-year-old first grader from Virginia won a national handwriting contest, but that's not what has everyone talking. Not only did Anaya Ellick win against 300,000 other contestants, from kindergarten to eighth grade, she did it with no hands.

"There is truly very little that this girl cannot do," principal Tracy Cox of Greenbrier Christian Academy in Chesapeake told ABC News. 

Anaya was born without hands and she uses her forearms to write, opting to forgo prostheses.

"She is a hard worker. She is determined. She is independent. She is a vivacious and a no-excuses type of young lady," Cox said. 

Anaya's penmanship was submitted in the category that encourages the participation of students with cognitive delays, or intellectual, physical or developmental disabilities and judged by a team of occupational therapist. The competition had very strict guidelines, and judges also looked at how far Anaya was spacing her letters out. 

The winner of the handwriting competition is awarded the Nicholas Maxim Special Award for Excellence in Penmanship.

"We looked at her writing and were just stunned to see how well her handwriting was, considering she writes without hands," competition director Kathleen Wright told ABC News. "Her writing sample was comparable to someone who had hands."

"Out of this world, people always say oh my gosh she is beyond her years how she speaks, everything that she does," Bianca Middleton said about her daughter. "It may be different, it may be hard, the road might be long, but she will persevere."

Greenbrier founder and superintendent Ron H. White told ABC News that Anaya's peers treat her no differently than other students, and she keeps up with them. 

"I don't think Anaya thinks of it as an obstacle," White said.