Virginia girl is youngest ever in National Spelling Bee

McLEAN, Va. — The youngest person ever to qualify for the National Spelling Bee was running around in a stream with a friend, hunting for rocks. Suddenly, she came charging up the bank and headed straight for her mother.

"Hold on to that basalt," Lori Anne Madison said in a bossy 6-year-old's voice, "and do not drop it."

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"Oh my gosh, what is it? A water worm. A water worm! It's alive," said Lori Anne, her shoes soaked from more than an hour of exploring. "I need it in my collection. It's wonderful."

She is blonde and adorable and talks at 100 mph. In the last few weeks, she has won major awards in both swimming and math, but one accomplishment above all has made her an overnight national celebrity: This week, the precocious girl from Lake Ridge, Va., will be onstage with youngsters more than twice her age and twice her size as one of 278 spellers who have qualified for the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

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http://www.freep.com/article/20120528/NEWS07/120528026/Virginia-girl-is-youngest-ever-in-National-Spelling-Bee?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE

This kid is the youngest child to ever qualify by a whopping 2 years.