The Seattle area teenager who won the Doodle for Google competition is making a surprising donation of some of her winnings.
Kameirah Johnson, 18, is a senior at Lakeside School in North Seattle. Her digital artwork, called “Hair Power: The Crown That Grows From Us,” is of three Black girls lying in a field surrounded by golden fireflies. It won over thousands of other submissions.
In the painting, the girls' puffy and braided hair spells out "Google."
Johnson said her artwork is focused on Black figures "because I have a lot of pride in my heritage and where I come from. When someone looks at this, I just want them to feel empowered. I want them to feel empowered, and I want them to feel a sense of joy."
Johnson will receive a $55,000 scholarship and a $50,000 technology package for her school. But instead of giving the latter to Lakeside School, which is a private school with an endowment of over $307 million as of 2025, Johnson is donating that technology package to Seattle's Rainier Beach High School.
"Everything I do is for the people," Johnson said in a video on social media. "Rainier Beach has one of the strongest, most talented, most resilient communities in our region. And I wanted to invest in a school full of kids who look like me, dream like me, and deserve every opportunity to create and succeed."
Johnson's award-winning painting appeared on Google's homepage last Thursday. She plans to attend NYU in the fall to study art and economics.
