When Google executive Megan Smith heard about a report in March analyzing a lack of diversity in Google Doodles, her reaction was not what you might expect. An accounting of 445 people honored in Google Doodles from 2010 to 2013 found that 62% were white men. Women accounted for about 17%, and women of color just 4%, according to the analysis by SPARK Movement, a girls advocacy group. The report was picked up by news outlets worldwide and confirmed what advocacy groups and Doodle-watchers had known for a long time. But Smith, an 11-year veteran of the tech giant, saw the findings in a positive light. “I was excited because we had already solved the problem,” said Smith, vice president of Google(X). SPARK did not know it at the time, but Google’s Doodle team had been talking for years about the diversity problem in the beloved illustrations on Google homepages seen around the world. In phone calls and a Google+ hangout with SPARK members after the report’s release, Smith revealed that the Doodles team was actively working to balance gender representation in 2014.

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