This 12-Year-Old Arm Wrestling Champ Is The Best

When you think of champion arm wrestlers, you don't usually think of 12-year-old girls, but there's one girl who might make you reconsider that. Grace Houston is a 12-year-old arm wrestler who is not only winning competitions but also makes it look easy. She also took on grown man Michael Strahan on Good Morning America after he challenged her to a match, and she beat him without breaking a sweat. Can you say "girl power"?

Grace Houston's father, John Houston, is also an arm wrestler, and when she told him she wanted to try it out, he started training her. And before long, she was showing up a competitions, defeating the boys in the junior tournaments. She even recently won the kids' division of the Minnesota state tournament in both the left– and right–arm competition.

"All weekend long, the competitors and a number of the parents were surprised at how quickly she rolled through the boys," her father told the Associate Press. "People noticed." He also added that if she keeps at it, he thinks she could be national champion someday.

And her mother, Stacey Houston, is also proud. "It's fun for her to do something kind of out of the ordinary," she said. "And it's fun to see people's reactions when she proves how strong she is."

Grace recently was a guest on Good Morning America where Ronda Rousey, the champion MMA fighter, had made a video message congratulating her and encouraging her to keep on being awesome — and where Michael Strahan challenged her to a match. And while I suppose it's possible he was letting her win — beating a kid on national TV is not a good look — it certainly doesn't look like it.

Basically, this girl is amazing. It's always awesome to see girls participating in male-dominated sports — and especially awesome to see them winning.

There's nothing that says girls can't arm wrestle or that only boys can be strong or lift weights or do strength training. And the fact that girls are socialized not to do such things is hugely unfortunate. Which is why it's also great to see girls being celebrated for engaging in these traditionally "masculine" things.

So keep it up, Grace! You rock!