A pint-sized, seven year-old girl from Brazil has won the respect of internet users worldwide, with this video of her landing a heelflip on the third try while wearing a fairy dress and matching wings:
Rayssa Leal, who lives in Imperatriz, Maranhão with her mother, Lilian Mendes, told Quartz that she’s only been skating since turning six years old, after one of her dad’s friends gave her a board for her birthday. Since then, she’s gone nuts for the sport, going with her mom to the skatepark every evening, from six to nine pm.
“She is very energetic,” Mendes told Quartz. “We put a limit, because if it were up to her, she’d never stop.”
Mendes said her daughter was never really into toys or dolls, and that skating has become a great tool to keep her motivated at school. If she doesn’t do well there, she’s not allowed to skate.
As for that artfully executed heelflip, Leal had a reminder for us all.
“I was really happy,” she said. “I trained a lot to get it right.”
An old adage, delivered by a new little fairy: If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again.