Young designers push for new emojis with Black, mixed-race hairstyles
London — There are almost 4,000 emojis to help people express themselves online, but a group of young design students in London says none of them feature Black or mixed-race hairstyles, and they’re determined to change that.
“As a Black creative and someone who’s constantly changing their hair, this campaign is really personal to me,” said Olivia Mushigo, senior creative on the Rise.365 team.
The London youth group is determined to break down beauty stereotypes with the first ever emojis featuring afros, braids, cornrows and locs.
Catarina Demony/REUTERS
“I feel like there’s a negative stereotype around coarser hair textures, among like, Afro hair,” project designer Jayzik Duckoo said.
Apple created 300 new emojis, some highlighting different races and professions, in response to a backlash from consumers.
Illustrating the power of emoji
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The London team’s four new emoji designs will be submitted in April to Unicode, the California-based organization that approves or rejects all new emojis.
“There’s a lot of history behind our hair,” said Joyclen Brodie-Mends Buffong, the founder of the Rise.365 community interest company behind the project. “We take a lot of time to do our hair, so for us it’s important to want to be seen in a positive light.”
Rise.365 has asked others to help promote their cause by searching “Afro hair emoji” on social media and search engines, to boost data around the query, which will help their bid when they submit their proposed emojis in the spring.
For now, they can only wait, and hope their creative and inclusive emojis will make the cut.
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Source: cbsnews.com