Little Girl Born without Hands Wins National Handwriting Competition

(Photos: Greenbriar Christian Academy)

7-year old Anaya Ellick of Chesapeake, Virginia executed perfect penmanship in a national competition called the Nicholas Maxim Award. This was an incredible feat, considering that she doesn't have hands.

It doesn't surprise anyone who knows her. Anaya has been determined from infancy to not let her disability impede her goals. The Virginia Pilot reports:

But when Anaya was only a few days old, she was already making an impression. She couldn’t hold a pacifier, but she was keeping it in her mouth by cupping it there with one arm.

While still a baby, she figured out how to hold a fork to eat and how to build with blocks.

“She helped me be comfortable with it,” Middleton said.

From an early age, Anaya got the message from her family that she could do anything. But it hasn’t been that simple. She is fiercely independent, apt to reject offers for help. In her first few years, she grew frustrated when she wasn’t able to complete a task.

When Anaya wanted to lean how to draw and write, she left her prosthetics behind:

When she wanted to draw, she learned how to balance a crayon or marker between her arms. By the time she was 5, she stopped using prosthetics. They were slowing her down more than helping, her mother said.

It clearly worked for her. This is Anaya's winning contest entry.

-via Ace of Spades HQ