Annie Jean-Baptiste, the Head of Product Inclusion, and Angelica McKinley, the Doodle Art Director & Visual Storyteller, have different roles to ensure that Google products and visuals, which reach billions of people worldwide, are universally inclusive.
Jean-Baptiste’s accomplishments include diversifying emojis and facial recognition, as well as updating the Google Assistant software to be more reflective of the times.
For this year’s Juneteenth Doodle, McKinley partnered with illustrator Rachelle Baker on the above design, highlighting “scenes of Juneteenth celebration from the past to the present and focusing on the decorative ironwork contributions made by Black Americans.
“Since we’re one of the largest places to go for information, we’re giving people a chance to see something that they might not have looked for on their own.
“I want to show myself as authentically as I can, so wearing my hair naturally in locs and having a nose ring are things that I like to do,” says McKinley.