From friendly smiley faces to cheeky peaches, emoji now form a staple part of many of our day-to-day messages.
But four key characters are missing, according to a new poll.
The poll, conducted by Rise.365, reveals that hundreds of Britons believe we need emoji with black and mixed-race hairstyles.
The community support group has mocked up four new characters with some of these hairstyles.
‘We really want to start changing perceptions for future generations – starting where it matters most, with young people, said Joyclen Brodie-Mends Buffong, Founder of Rise.365.
From friendly smiley faces to cheeky peaches, emoji now form a staple part of many of our day-to-day messages. But four key characters are missing, according to a new poll
The Unicode Standard currently contains 3,782 emoji, including faces with a range of hairstyles.
Users can choose from characters with ponytails, long curls, a bob, or even a bald head.
However, none of the options have black or mixed-race hairstyles, which Rise.365 claims shows a ‘severe and concerning lack of representation.’
In a survey of its black and mixed-race members, 74 per cent said that there isn’t an emoji that represents their hair.
Meanwhile, 32 per cent said they feel overlooked and forgotten.
Based on these figures, Rise.365 has mocked up emoji with four common black and mixed-race hairstyles – an afro, braids, cainrows, and locs.
The four emoji will be submitted to the Unicode Consortium in April 2025 for consideration
Reanna, the designer of the braids emoji, said: ‘Having these emojis made is such a big deal and a massive step towards encouraging people to embrace/feel comfortable with their hair.
‘To be able to be the representative of the braids emoji is such a huge honour and I hope this empowers people to be comfortable in their hair textures and styles.’
The four emoji will be submitted to the Unicode Consortium in April 2025 for consideration.
To help boost the chance that they’re approved, Rise.365 is calling on the public for help.
‘All [we’re] asking is you simply Google “afro hair”,’ Rise.365 said.
‘A key criterion for Unicode when reviewing submissions is frequency of use of the key term associated with the proposed emoji.
‘They assess this by looking at Google Trend data, looking at web, image and video searches of the key term, which for the Rise.365 submission will be “Afro hair”.’
Unicode, the organisation that sets the standard set of emojis, is currently taking suggestions for the next set of new emojis.
However, it accepts fewer emojis each year, so your submission will need to be top-notch.
To make a submission, all you need to do is fill out a Unicode Emoji Submission Form.
However, if you actually want to get your submission accepted, the first thing you need to do is make sure your idea is genuinely new.
Unicode maintains a list of all currently approved emojis but there is also a list of all the emojis that people have submitted in the past.
It won’t review anything that has already been declined in the last four years so you’ll need to check your idea hasn’t already been rejected.
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