"I'm extremely excited to have my first books published, and I'm especially happy that they are for kids," Zaila, now 16, tells PEOPLE Abigail Adams is a Human Interest Writer and Reporter for PEOPLE.

Zaila Avant-garde walks onto the basketball court with the kind of confidence an NBA player might exude, but the Whitney Houston shirt she sports alludes to the light-hearted nature that follows this ...

This teen connected her talents from spelling to writing. Zaila Avant-garde, the teen champion of the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee, announced her newest accomplishment: becoming a children’s ...

INCREDIBLE JOURNEY. ZAILA AVANT GARDE IS TAKING LIFE BY STORM, BREAKING GLASS CEILINGS AND CONQUERING GOALS LEFT AND RIGHT. NOW SHE’S IN HER FIRST SEMESTER OF COLLEGE AND SETTING HER SIGHTS NEARLY 239 ...

HARVEY, La. -- Leave it to small-town Louisiana to know how to throw a party for one of their own. The community of Harvey, Louisiana threw a well-deserved parade for 14-year-old Zaila Avant-Garde, in ...

Zaila was 14 last year when she became the first Black American to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee. What has she been up to? Credit...Sarahbeth Maney/The New York Times Supported by By Maria ...

Since she started reading chapter books, 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee champion Zaila Avant-garde's father has kept a running list of the hundreds of books she's read. But by summer’s end, the ...

Zaila Avant-garde knows how to spell “history” — and how to make it. The 14-year-old spelling and basketball prodigy from Louisiana became the first African-American to win the Scripps National ...