The annual Doodle for Google contest showcases the creativity of student artists across the country, and this year’s Wyoming state winner is Caroline Henson, an eighth-grader at the University of Wyoming Lab School in Laramie, who is using her doodle to bring light to mental health.
To celebrate its 25th anniversary, Google asked students to draw what they hope for over the next 25 years for its annual drawing contest. Students across the country submitted tens of thousands of original doodles expressing their hopes for the coming decades, with just 55 winners selected from every state and territory in the country.
Henson’s brightly colored marker doodles include jars overflowing with emotions, rain, sunshine and a stethoscope. She said she’s always had a strong interest in psychology, particularly forensic psychology, adding that many of her friends struggle with mental health. Her hope for the future is to see greater awareness and access to mental health care.
“Therapy is very expensive and not everyone has the money to afford it,” she says, “and many people struggle with the confidence to tell others. I want people to be more accepting and able to talk about their mental health.”
In her free time, Henson enjoys playing the piano and drawing with colored pencils and pencils. She had heard about the Doodle for Google contest before, but it was her mother’s encouragement that led her to enter. Henson said her Doodle represents the image of bottling up emotions.
“It’s all in this bottle and someone drinks it, and it gets into their mind and it creates the rain clouds. And you need the sun to keep the rain away, so the person under the rain cloud is talking to the person who has the sun nearby,” she said.
Henson said she wanted to create a doodle that would focus on mental health, but the actual design came to her while she was out walking her dog. She asked some friends what they thought of the design, and in the end it barely needed any tweaking.
“I actually didn’t start coming up with the whole concept until the day of the deadline,” she says, “and stuck with a rough idea that became the final version.”
Earlier this week, Henson received a surprise celebration from Google at her school, which included balloons and her creations projected onto a big screen.
Henson’s mental health doodle is now in the running to become one of five national finalists in the contest. The national winner’s doodle will be featured on Google’s homepage for one day. The artist will receive $50,000 in college scholarships and a $50,000 equipment and technology package for their school or nonprofit. Voting is open until June 4.
