Brownell Middle School student and current seventh-grader Jane Hynous was not expecting national attention when submitting her artwork for the state-wide “I Voted” student sticker competition. Now, nearly five months later, she has made national headlines on platforms like The New York Times, CBS and John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight.
“I just tried to make something funny that people were going to like,” Hynous said. “It was kind of like, ‘This is what I made, I’m going to submit it, and I’m going to see what happens.’”
The sticker, depicting a werewolf ripping its shirt open, is inspired by the popular meme that gained popularity in 2022 on X, formerly Twitter. It is unclear who exactly created the original artwork. Hynous’ best friend and fellow seventh-grader Amelya Beckerman is unsurprised about the route Hynous took when submitting her sticker for entry.
“She’s really funny and always fun to hang out with,” Beckerman said. “People would post [the sticker] on social media, and a lot of people replied to it and saw it.”
Out of 450 entries among high school, middle school and elementary school students, Hynous was voted as winner of the competition. Select entries were chosen by judges, and the entire nation was given access to vote on their favorite designs to be handed out to voters after they finish voting on the Michigan ballot. Hynous won by a landslide.
“I got 22,000 votes,” Hynous said. “2,000 more than anyone else.”
The competition began when Elizabeth Johnston, Hynous’ sixth-grade social studies teacher, gave her students a state-sponsored assignment to design a sticker as an activity to do when she was out of school for the Brownell eighth-grade Cedar Point trip.
“I had it in my mind that this would be a good end-of-the-year task to do because there’s a creative element to it,” Johnston said. “I introduced it the day before I left, and then the kids had part of that day that I was gone to work on [the assignment].”
However, Johnston did not think much of the assignment, and learned about Hynous’ sticker through social media the next summer.
“I saw it go viral at the beginning of the summer on Reddit,” Johnston said. “I knew that if anyone was going to come up with something eye-catching, it would definitely be Jane.”
Johnston, not thinking anything about the competition, did not learn about Hynous’ sticker until that summer, months later.
“I was like, ‘Get out, that’s my student.’” Johnston said. “I was really, really, proud, but I’m not surprised.”
Aside from her academic prowess, Hynous is frequently described by students and staff alike as incredibly intelligent, artistic and kind, and a model student.
“She’s quite humble,” Johnston said. “[Through] all of this, it just kind of rolls off her back.”
Most recently, Hynous was contacted by producers of Jimmy Kimmel Live! for an interview. The interview was to be aired the night of October 1st after the vice presidential debate, but was sadly cut due to time constraints. At the time of writing, Hynous was unsure if the piece would be aired and when it would potentially happen.
“There’s a lot to be said about Jane,” Johnston said. “But I think the first thing to say is that she’s just a genuinely good person.”
