KUOW73%
This Seattle 7th grader is ready to take on the best spellers in the country 1%
By Noel Gasca0%
5/22/2026, 5:14:32 PM
Topics: Education
BS Summary: This article contains 26 faulty reasoning types, including Optimism Bias, Post Hoc (False Cause), and Confirmation Bias, with Anecdotal as the most egregious example at 20.6% saturation with 173 hits. Analysis detected 1,306 faulty-reasoning hits from 839 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 2.1% and a BS Rank of 1% (21,780 of 21,887 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 99.50% of the article peer group.
Thick workbooks and stacks of flashcards sit on the dining table at the home of Raven Amrhein, a seventh grader at Hamilton Middle School.
“On the average weekday, I will probably be memorizing 30 minutes at a minimum, to one or two hours at a maximum,” Amrhein said.
“On the weekends though, I’ll be practicing one to two hours [or more].”
All that studying could make a difference next week when Amrhein competes in the 2026 Scripps National Spelling Bee, and tries to bring the Scripps Cup to The Evergreen State.
Raven has hyperlexia, a condition that allowed them to start reading words at a younger age than their peers.
For Raven, the condition manifested as a passion for all things reading, writing, and words — including spelling.
Their favorite word is longest included in most standard English dictionaries — pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.
It’s a type of lung disease.
Amrhein says it took them just “a few minutes” to figure out how to spell the word.
What helped, Amrhein explained, is that they recognized the word’s stems.
The stems are the base of a word, and when Amrhein is looking at a word, stems act like puzzle pieces that click together to explain the meaning of a word, and can help with learning how to spell it.
Part of Amrhein’s studying regimen is learning “nibbles” of stems and words from other languages, like Latin, Greek, French, and Italian.
Raven’s journey to the upcoming National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., has stretched years.
They competed in their first spelling bee in the second grade.
During the second round, they misspelled the word "brocade."
“I thought it was French and spelled it with a Q-U,” Amrhein said,
But the flub didn’t dissuade Raven — they wanted to keep spelling.
They studied more, kept competing, and this year, Amrhein won the Scripps Regional Spelling Bee for King and Snohomish counties.
Next week, they’ll be the only competitor representing Washington state at the Bee.
Oregon is also just sending one competitor, but Idaho is sending three.
California will have 24 spellers representing the state.
The only Washingtonian to ever clinch the title of Scripps National Spelling Bee Champion is Amy King.
King won in 1990 when she was in the eighth grade.
A self-described “shy” kid, King said the thought of winning the Bee never entered her mind.
“I was [speller] 218, so I had to wait a long time to spell,” King recollects.
“We were bored in the back, blowing bubbles, I mean, just being kids.
And I was spelling a lot of words right, I was kind of mouthing them.”
King started to feel confident, and aimed to make it to the top six competitors, so she could sit at a special table during dinner.
She won the Bee after correctly spelling the word "fibranne" — a type of rayon.
King said she had never heard of the word prior to the competition, but was able to piece together the spelling thanks to years of special spelling instruction during the school year, and two summers of weekly French language lessons.
“I do remember being very frustrated, because I just needed a break,” King said, laughing.
“Just the typical kid — complaining, ‘Oh, why do I have to do this?’”
King returned to Seattle with a level of hometown stardom.
She remembers riding with the SeaFair clowns during the Torchlight Parade, a story in The Seattle Times, and a couple of billboards with congratulatory messages for her.
For years, King felt "embarrassed" when her husband or friends would highlight her achievement.
“Over the years, I’ve learned, I should be proud of this,” King said.
“It is something… many people can’t say they’ve done this.”
Today, King’s trophy is packed away safely in storage, though it has been on display in the office of her family’s home in Anchorage.
As a recent empty-nester, King says she is enjoying traveling the world with her husband, but she hopes to find a spot for the trophy in her future permanent home.
When it comes to advice for Amrhein, King recommends staying present throughout the week they’ll be in D.C., and, don’t be afraid to put the study materials away.
“There are thousands of words, and yes, that one word maybe that you see and remind yourself of, might be the one that you spell,” King said.
“But the odds of that are so slim.”
She also said it was important for competitors to acknowledge how far they’ve come to represent Washington state.
While Amrhein is excited to travel to D.C. and meet their fellow spellers, and go on the field trips Scripps has planned during off-time from the competition, they also admit that they’re “kind of excited” for the spelling season to wrap up.
With summer right around the corner, Amrhein is looking forward to pursuing other hobbies: drawing, making comics, practicing the guitar, and playing sports like hockey and roller derby.
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100%flagged-word coverageRaven Amrhein
78 attributed words22% of attributed speech87% writer coverage
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