🇺🇸 April DeGideo

Third in the country

DeGideo went further than all but two spellers in the 1999 National Spelling Bee, tying for third place before she was handed terrene, an adjective meaning of the earth or earthly. The title went to Nupur Lala of Tampa, who took it on logorrhea, excessive talkativeness.

Third is the placing that hurts. Far enough to have believed it was possible, not far enough to hold the trophy. Spellbound, released in 2002 and nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary, is largely a film about that specific disappointment, arriving at eight different addresses.

The smartest kid in the world

DeGideo gives the film its most quotable explanation of why any of this matters to the children who do it. 'I'd never been in a situation where you feel like you're the smartest kid in the world,' she told Smithsonian.

That is the whole appeal of a national bee stated in one sentence, and it is also the reason class runs through the story. Smithsonian describes DeGideo's background as working-class in small-town Pennsylvania, her father a former asbestos factory worker. For a child from that house, the bee was not a credential to be added to others. It was the only room in which the thing she was good at counted for anything.

Nupur Lala, the champion, put the structural version of the same point to the magazine: economic privilege, educational background and family dynamics played a big role in who succeeded. Both statements are true, which is what makes the film durable.

Where April is now

Smithsonian's 2015 follow-up found that DeGideo had attended New York University and had worked in publishing and as a paralegal. She had recently had a second child and was considering law school.

It is a portrait of an ordinary competent adult life, which in the context of a child-prodigy documentary is the least likely outcome to get written about and the most common one to occur. No source consulted for this page records whether she went to law school, and this page does not assume an answer.

The eight, thirteen years on

Smithsonian's summary of the group is flat: all of the spellers featured in Spellbound went to college, and for the most part all have built satisfying careers. Lala was in medical school in Arkansas after Michigan, MIT and cancer biology in Texas. Harry Altman had a mathematics doctorate from Michigan. Emily Stagg, sixth in 1999, was a Yale-trained psychiatric nurse practitioner working with children in Connecticut. Ashley White, out on the first day, had a master's in social work from Howard and a job with the District of Columbia. Neil Kadakia, ninth, was a vice-president at a real-estate company. Angela Arenivar, the daughter of undocumented Mexican immigrants, taught Spanish and had begun a doctorate.

Ted Brigham, the quiet boy from rural Missouri, died in 2007 while attending medical school; no cause is reported. Thirteen years is long enough for a film about children to become a document about adults, and that is the form Spellbound now takes.

What is documented, and what is not

Firm: DeGideo is from small-town Pennsylvania and was one of eight spellers followed in Spellbound; she tied for third at the 1999 National Spelling Bee and was eliminated on terrene; her father is described as a former asbestos factory worker and her background as working-class; by 2015 she had attended NYU, had worked in publishing and as a paralegal, had a second child and was considering law school.

Not documented: her birth year and age, her school, her parents' names, her degree subject at NYU, whether she went on to law school, and anything about her life after 2015.