Good morning, everyone! Spelling starts at 10 a.m. today, but before it begins, we want to tell you a little bit about our new mascots -- King Bee and Queen Bee.
They don't have real names yet, but you can help choose them. Voting will be open until this afternoon.
The mascots are intended to help bring some of the excitement of Bee Week into the rest of the world, said Corrie Loeffler, the Scripps National Spelling Bee's editorial director.
Taylor Swift is already telling everyone how much fun spelling is, but the King and Queen Bees can help spread the message.
"How fun would that be, to have another point of interaction?" Loeffler said. "It's bringing a little bit of the entertainment of Bee Week off of just that stage."
More than 80 spellers submitted suggestions for names, and the Bee's staff picked five pairs for people to vote on. Loeffler said she had some favorites that didn't make the cut -- like Justin Bee-ber and Bee-yonce -- but that the team wanted names that would make sense in 50 or 100 years. (The Bee is nearing its 100th birthday.)
And for those of you at National Harbor, keep an eye out for the mascots -- they have stickers they can use to sign Beekeepers, the spellers' autograph books.
The name suggestions include Queen Melissa (the Greek root for the word bee) and Vocabu-Larry. For a full list of names, and to vote on your favorite pair, click here.