Falls Church Second Grader Becomes Today’s ‘Google Doodle’ Artist

If you check the Google homepage, you might have noticed today’s charming dancing dinosaurs doodle. What you might not know is the artist is local second-grader Sarah Gomez-Lane.

Last year, Gomez-Lane won the 10th annual “Doodle 4 Google” competition, earning a $30,000 scholarship and $50,000 for her school, Pine Springs Elementary, to spend on technology.

Animators at Google also helped Gomez-Lane turn the artwork into a short interactive, animated feature where, on clicking, each of the animals will act out a scene, from eating berries to playing the trumpet.

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“When they called my name, I felt happy and surprised,” said Gomez-Lane in a video put together by Google. “I’m going to call my principal. He’s going to say ‘yay.'”

According to a statement from Google:

“We’re thrilled to share the work of our 2018 Doodle for Google winner on the US Google homepage: 2nd grader Sarah Gomez-Lane, who drew delightful dinosaurs to highlight her dream of becoming a paleontologist! We fell in love with Sarah’s rendering of her dinos, and were blown away by her big (you might even say “dino-sized”!) ambitions for her future, especially at her young age.”

Image via Google