Today's Google Doodle was made by a Seattle student and national contest winner

A Seattle high school student was named the national winner of this year's Doodle for Google contest Thursday. Her work is currently being shown on the Google homepage - and she'll earn more than $50,000 in scholarship money.

Lakeside School senior Kameirah Johnson submitted her digital artwork, "Hair Power: The Crown That Grows From Us," to Google's annual art contest late last year. Guided by a theme of "My superpower is…," her work highlighted the beauty and power of Black hair. The piece was selected by judges as a finalist and received tens of thousands of public votes to be crowned the winning design, according to Google.

Johnson will receive a total of $55,000 in scholarship funding and a $50,000 technology package for Lakeside. As one of five finalists, she had already received a $10,000 college scholarship, a Chromebook laptop and a spot earlier this year leading the Google homepage.

Johnson told The Seattle Times this spring that she was instilled with pride in her natural hair growing up and she wanted to incorporate her family's history and culture into this piece.

"Being Black in a world that has been against you, expressing yourself freely is inherently a political statement," Johnson said in April. "So I wanted to broadcast and shine light on that and say, ‘Hey, her hair could be curly, it could be braided, it could be whatever. But it's free and it's beautiful.'"

Johnson's Doodle for Google submission features three girls, representing Kameirah; her mother, Simone Johnson; and her older sister, Kalieyah. The girl at left has a ladybug on her shirt - a reference to Johnson's childhood nickname - while the top of the girl at right shows a crown, Johnson said, which honors Black hair as "regal" and "sacred" while nodding to the Crown Act, a Washington state law that prohibits hair discrimination in schools and the workplace.

Johnson is set to major in economics and studio art at New York University this fall. Careerwise, she has her sights set on combining business and art, opening her own gallery and creating mentorship opportunities.

Asked about her reaction to winning the Doodle contest, Johnson told Google she feels "incredibly grateful and humbled by this recognition."

"Knowing that my artwork and message will be seen by so many people is both exciting and meaningful," Johnson said in a Q&A published Thursday. "More than anything, I'm thankful for the opportunity to represent young artists and to share something that comes from my heart."

This report includes material from The Seattle Times archives.

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This story was originally published June 4, 2026 at 4:49 PM.