The Consortium also tries to add emojis that are diverse and inclusive. In 2015, emojis became available in a range of skin colors 👩🏽⚕️ 🙋🏻♂️ 👩🏾🎓. In 2017, the group approved an emoji depicting a woman wearing a hijab, or head scarf. And this year, a new set of emojis will represent people with disabilities.
Anyone can propose a new emoji—even teens, like you ✊! In fact, a 15-year-old named Rayouf Alhumedhi came up with the idea for the hijab emoji. She sent the idea to Unicode—noting that 550 million Muslim women, like her, wear a head scarf every day. A member of the committee worked with Rayouf to hone her proposal, including coming up with an emoji design. Because of her, an underserved community is now represented digitally around the world 🌍. It turns out a little picture can say a lot! ⚛️