11-year-old competing in national spelling bee

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) – A fifth grader will be the only Kentuckian in this year’s Scripps National Spelling Bee, making her debut on Saturday in the preliminaries.

This was her first attempt at qualifying and clearly, all of her hard work has paid off so far.

“It’s fun to be able to do it,” DeVore said.

And by it, Lindsay DeVore means spelling. Onomatopoeia is one of her favorite words to spell.

Lindsay is following in her two older sisters’ footsteps by competing in the Scripps National Spelling Bee Preliminaries.

She says she hopes to continue competing in the spelling bee until the cut off in 8th grade.

“I read through them and someone quizzes me on them,” DeVore said.

Well, it’s not that easy!

Lindsay was given a list of 4,000 words and her coach, better known as dad,  helps her study.

“She’s worked really hard for this. She’s been working on this for fifteen-sixteen months now so I think she’s ready. I think she’ll do her best and we’re excited to see how she does,” Ben DeVore said.

Mom and dad both encourage schools to get their students involved with the spelling bee.

He says it teaches kids a lot of great life lessons.

“It’s a lot more than just spelling. It’s public speaking, and thinking clearly under pressure, a lot of hard work and just taking that hard work and being able to stand up in front of people and just dig deep inside and pull that all out and hopefully do well,” DeVore said.

The competition, usually in washington, D.C. will take place virtually.

So lindsay can participate in the comfort of her own home. Good luck!