This contest won't earn her a gold medal, but a Conyers teen's fast fingers could make her a lot richer.
Ava Gude, 17, will compete Wednesday in the LG U.S. National Texting competition in New York City. The grand prize is $50,000.
Ava, a recent graduate of Rockdale Magnet School, is one of 11 finalists chosen from around the country after several qualifying rounds. They'll be put through a series of challenges that could include texting while blindfolded, texting words and phrases backward, and speed texting, at the event being held in Times Square.
It's Ava's first trip to New York, but she hasn't yet had much time for sightseeing.
"I'm just trying to practice until my thumbs fall off lol," Ava texted the AJC on Tuesday morning from her hotel room. "I've been practicing on an app that tells me my mistakes and how fast I'm typing." You lose points for any inaccuracy in the text message, she noted.
Ava said an ad on MTV prompted her to shoot for the competition because she's "texting all the time to parents' dismay," she wrote. "We support all her endeavors...no matter how unconventional," mom Stephanie Nunez texted. "I can say though that I was surprised when she told me she had won her way to the finals."
Should her fingers take her to victory, Ava plans to use the money to pay off student loans. She plans to attend Campbell University in North Carolina and study pre-pharmacy.
This is the fifth year that LG Mobile has held the U.S. National Texting Championship. The contest is open to those age 13 and older.
About the Author
