Young girl without hands wins national handwriting competition

Ten-year-old Sara Hinesley of Frederick, Maryland, can write cursive well enough to win an award for it. This is quite the accomplishment for someone so young, especially when you consider that Sara was born without hands.

What's the story?

Speaking to WJZ-TV, Sara said she found writing in cursive to be "kind of hard — well sometimes easy and sometimes kind of hard — cause you don't really remember all the letters to write."

She attends St. John's Regional Catholic School in Frederick. In addition to practicing her cursive, she likes to draw.

The Zaner-Bloser National Handwriting Contest awards students in kindergarten through eighth grade for their writing skills. It includes a category for students with special needs. Sara will receive a trophy for winning the award when school ends on June 13 and a $500 prize. She told CNN that she wasn't sure what she would do with the money.

Sara's family told CNN that they had looked into getting prosthetic arms for her, but had decided against it when they saw how much she could accomplish without them.

"She is so amazing and functional without prosthetics that really there is not a need," her mom told CNN. "She can do just about anything — often times better than me or my husband." She also described her daughter as being "very independent."

It seems that Hinesley isn't the only overachiever in her family. Her sister Veronica, who is also only 10, built a rudimentary prosthetic hand for her sister in science class, so that the two of them could play catch together.

What else?

The sisters also go rock climbing together.

"Anytime I fail, I just keep doing it with Veronica cheering me on — I can always get to the top," Sara told WBZ.