Inclusive Emojis

“An emoji is worth a thousand words but only if you can find the right one”

Emojis are the world’s ‘fastest-growing language’.
Here’s the real deal for a language used by over 90% of the online population- Inclusive Emojis.

Emojis are created by a California-based nonprofit called Unicode Consortium. For a long time, emojis lacked diversity- certain country flags were not included, a variety of skin tones was non-existent etc.

What’s interesting is that historically, Unicode created gender neutral emojis. They created emojis for police officer, not police man. Runner, not man running. Once an emoji is approved, each tech platform designed their own versions. And the tech platforms interpreted these as male default.

In 2016, Unicode abandoned their gender neutral stance. They gendered their emojis. They created male runner and female runner. And later versions continue to add inclusive and gender neutral emojis.

And guess what- if you didn’t find one to your liking, You can always make and submit one.

Each year, the emoji subcommittee releases new emoji that will update the existing keyboard. Anyone is allowed to submit a proposal for a new emoji. If you make a strong enough case, Unicode will accept it.

Got an idea? 😎
Link to submit and other emoji fun facts in comments.

Image Credits: Adobe Global Emoji Diversity & Inclusion Report