Nerd alert! Edith Fuller, a home-schooled 5-year-old from Oklahoma, qualified for the National Spelling Bee after winning the Scripps Green Country Regional Spelling Bee Saturday. She will be the youngest-ever dweeb to compete in a national spelling bee.
The five-year-old beat out more than 50 fellow word nerds in Tulsa’s Scripps Green Country Regional Spelling Bee. That win earns her a place in the national contest, slated to take place in Washington D.C. this May.
Edith Fuller was her final word and she nailed it. (It’s a Sanskrit term for knowledge acquired through meditation, according to Dictionary.com.) She also correctly spelled colloquial, odori, sevruga, Panglossian, Baedeker, and sarsaparilla en route to her win, according to CNN.
In Washington D.C., the young spelling master will compete with kids as old as 15 from across the nation. “The Scripps National Spelling Bee is very proud of all of its spellers who advance and win their regional bee to qualify for the national final,” a Scripps spokesperson diplomatically told ABC News. “We certainly look forward to welcoming Edith Fuller and all of our more than 280 national spellers who will come to National Harbor in May to compete and enjoy a memorable Bee week.”
Annie Fuller, the proud mother, says the family discovered Edith’s talent over dinner last year when she spelled restaurant without having been taught the word. “Learning the words was so educational,” Annie told Tulsa World. “She was able to learn about different countries and cultures and different kinds of food.”
The regional contest lasted 18 rounds over the course of more than four hours. So, Edith also impressed with her ability to sit through it all. “She likes to move around,” her mother said. “I’m surprised she sat still for so long.”
Christopher B. Taub
