When your puzzle bestie proposes you attend all of the in-person state championships in one calendar year, you say “YES!” And that’s exactly what Melynda O. did.

Melynda (she/her) lives in Texas where she is an accountant and small business owner (MelT Shirts & Accessories). She’s been puzzling her whole life and in 2020 completed Ravensburger’s 32,000-piece New York City Window. When she was looking to share her accomplishment online, she discovered the World Jigsaw Puzzle Championship and immediately dove head-first into the rabbit hole of speed puzzling.

Now, Melynda regularly competes in Speedpuzzling.com contests and travels to in-person puzzle competitions around the U.S. and the world. Most notably, in 2025 Melynda and fellow Texas puzzler Kinsey K. attended 13 of the 14 Speedpuzzling.com in-person state championships.

While it was Kinsey’s idea, Melynda couldn’t resist; travel and puzzle competitions make the perfect combination! Luckily, Kinsey was able to add Melynda as her airline companion pass, and because they are so well connected to puzzle friends around the country, they were able to do all of this with minimal costs outside of the competition registration fees. And the best part was that they got to puzzle with even more new local puzzle friends!

Of course, Melynda’s already got lots of puzzle travel scheduled in 2026, including USA Jigsaw Nationals in Atlanta in March, the first World Series in Munich in May, and back to Valladolid for the fifth time for the World Jigsaw Puzzle Championship (WJPC) in September. One of Melynda’s favorite puzzle moments was becoming the first Texan to be a world-ranked puzzler when she made the WJPC finals in 2022.

Outside of competing, where she is a true star having won the 2024 Texas state championship, Melynda does a lot of local puzzle community building, hosting events, sharing practice puzzles, connecting teammates, and even creating custom team shirts and other puzzle merch through her small business. You can find her and MelT Shirts & Accessories in the Exhibitor Hall at Nationals!

Q&A Time:

What do you enjoy most about puzzling?

“Thanks to speed puzzling, I have had the opportunity to travel around the world and connect with thousands of incredible people. Whenever I travel to the world championship, I include a week of vacation, which has allowed me to see Italy, France, Iceland, Spain, and soon Egypt!”

What is your best advice for someone who wants to improve their speed puzzling abilities?

“Watch the livestreams from USA Jigsaw Nationals or from WJPC. Listen to the commentators discuss how they would approach the puzzle. Everyone puzzles differently. So try their strategies to see if they work for you. Their way may not work for you, but you might learn something new.”

What do you enjoy most about the puzzle community?

“After hosting so many local puzzle competitions, it is amazing to walk into a room of over 100 puzzlers and know most of them. You are constantly greeted with smiles and waves. I have yet to find negativity in the puzzle community. Everyone celebrates each other's victories in achieving personal goals. In addition, we band together and support each other. There're always people to make sure the Americans at WJPC have someone to go to if an issue arises. And at St. Paul Winter Carnival this year, there were challenges due to political unrest and extreme weather; it was amazing to see everyone chip in creating walking groups, a potluck, and airport pickups.”

Tell us a bit about any of your puzzling teammates!

“I've had so many amazing teammates over the years. My first nationals team included Kyle K., Emily C., and Karen C.. My first local team included Shayla J., Hope T., and Luann T. The team I've been with for nearly two years has been Kinsey K. and Jessica M. Kinsey streams on Twitch (kinseypuzzles), and is great at doing the hard part of a puzzle that nobody wants. Jessica is an amazing compliment to my skills in pairs. One example of this is where she can focus on the objects in the foreground while I handle the background.”

Connect:

Melynda can be found on Instagram: @melt.shirts and @mels_travels and at meltshirts.com.