Our Someone 2 Know was recently awarded a very special honor for young artists - she is the 2022 Nevada winner for the Doodle for Google contest. With this, the soon-to-be 4th grader now has an opportunity to win the national prize and see her artwork on the Google homepage. She may also one of sweetest nine year-and-a-half-year-olds in town.
We met up with Sophia Zabet and her parents in their Reno home.
“The Story of Pusheen the Cat,” Sophia read aloud as she shows us a small booklet that she wrote and illustrated when she was about seven years old.
She says when she was younger, she really like drawing animals. "Basically, when I was three years old I started drawing a lot."
Some six and half years later, she's honed much of her sketching skills. "Now, I'm drawing more people, like cartoonish people."
It's a cartoonish version of herself - with her fictional dog 'Risky' - that garnered Sophia top pick in Nevada for the Doodle for Google student-art contest.
Sophia explains her artwork. "The 'G' for me reading - reading a book by the tree." The wheels of the bike Sophia is riding form the two O’s in the word Google, and she continues, "The lower case 'g', I made a slide that I was going down on."
The “L” is Sophia holding the leash for her dog, whose shape forms the final “E”.
A Google team surprised Sophia and her classmates before school let out for summer. "When I won, I was very shocked!"
She was also quite pleased with the great prizes.
"I got a Chrome Book." Plus, a backpack filled with enviable goodies.
Sophia's biggest fans, by far, are mom and dad - they’ve kept just about everything their daughter has ever created.
Sophia is about a lot more than just art. She's what you might call a triple threat: she's athletic - quick on the soccer field and on her bicycle, she's musical - already playing advanced songs on the piano and she's smart as a whip.
"You know G-T? Gifted and Talented? It's like that every day,” Sophia describes her school within a school program at a Reno elementary.
She’s also humbly pragmatic about winning the national competition with her Doodle for Google.
"Because it's pretty hard to wins contestes" (sic)
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The second part of the contest starts today (July 7, 2022) and this is the IMPORTANT part - YOU can help Sophia become a national finalist!
From July 7th through July 12th the public is invited to vote for their favorite doodle by age group. Sophia is the only contestant from Nevada.
Click here to vote for Sophia to become a national finalist. The contest is live
