Mount Prospect resident named one of fastest texters

Jennifer Lenius, 19, has some of the fastest thumbs around. She recently won $500 and finished third out of more than 17,000 people in the Speed Text Tournament sponsored by U.S. Cellular.

Lenius, a Harper College student, put her texting skills to the test at the Wisconsin State Fair last summer. The contest featured 10 rounds, where texters competed individually and head-to-head while accurately spelling 28-character phrases, without texting shortcuts or acronyms.

According to U.S. Cellular spokesman Claire Prendergast, a few examples of the phrases include: "Oh no! It's Mr. mustache" and "Do you want to grab lunch?"

The average American texter sends 357 text messages per month but only makes 204 phone calls, according to a recent Nielsen study. The surge in text messaging is being driven by teens 13 to 17 years old, who on average send and receive about 1,742 text messages a month, according to the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association.

Last year, Americans sent 110 billion text messages, more than twice as many as they did in 2007.