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The documentary about eight youths who competed in the 1999 national spelling bee "was really incredible and intense," she said.
"We finished watching the movie, and my father said to me, 'Do you really want to do this?' "
Amy didn't hesitate.
"I told him it made me want to do it even more," she said. "It made me want to study harder and make it this year."
That's exactly what the 14-year-old Stevens eighth-grader did, winning the 2009 Intelligencer Journal Bee and earning a spot on the national spelling stage.
She'll head to Washington, D.C., Sunday to prepare for the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which runs from Tuesday through Thursday.
Amy is among 293 students from across the country chosen to compete in the bee, which will be televised on ESPN and ABC.
"I'm very honored because there's going to be a lot of kids there who are really incredible spellers, and it will be amazing to go there to compete with them," she said.
"I'm very nervous, but I'm very excited. I'd really like to make it to the semifinals on Thursday, but if I don't, I don't. I understand it's a stiff competition."
To prepare for the bee, Amy has been studying about 90 minutes a day with the help of her mother, Jill, who home-schools the five Gormley children.
The whole family, plus grandmother Doris Gormley, will be in D.C. on Wednesday to watch Amy compete in the preliminary rounds.
If she excels Wednesday and scores well on a written test all spellers must take Tuesday, Amy will compete in Thursday's final rounds.
She has memorized a 500-word study guide that Scripps provides to all competitors and has mainly been studying word endings and full words that have tripped her up in previous competitions.
"I think she's well prepared," Mrs. Gormley said. "I think the anticipation is there, but I don't think she's too stressed about it, which is good."
Amy had a chance to talk recently with two friends from Chester County who competed in the national bee in 2005 and 2007.
"Their advice was to just enjoy the competition and not get too tense or nervous about it," Amy said.
She'll try to do that by mixing pleasure trips in D.C. with her spelling practice sessions.
"I'm hoping to see the Lincoln Memorial, go to Mount Vernon and visit the Library of Congress," Amy said.
To further prepare herself for the week ahead, Amy and her family watched a tape of last year's national bee Thursday night.
While Amy said the competitors' spelling abilities made her "a little nervous," she appreciated the camaraderie she saw onstage.
"One thing I really appreciated was the sportsmanship among the spellers. They would high-five each other even after they lost a round," she said.
"It was more like, 'We're all in this together, let's be friends, instead of I'm out to beat you.' "
E-mail: bwallace@lnpnews.com
