Redhead emoji set for 2018

The days of ginger emoji FOMO may soon be over

Rachel Hosie
Tuesday 08 August 2017 04:05 EDT
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Across the world, having red hair is quite rare - just two per cent of the global population are ginger.

In Scotland and Ireland, however, that figure rises to 13 per cent and 10 per cent, giving the UK one of the highest concentrations of redheads in the world.

It’s little wonder then that for years there’s been so much outrage amongst Brits at the lack of ginger emoji.

But that could be all set to change. Finally.

Emojipedia have released the list of 67 emoji under consideration for the 2018 batch, and amongst them is a redhead.

It does still need to be approved at the subcommittee’s fourth-quarter meeting, but it’s on schedule.

The lack of ginger emoji has been one of the biggest complaints Emojipedia has received in recent years.

There was even an online petition launched in Scotland demanding one be introduced.

So needless to say, people are very excited that the redhead emoji looks set to be finally happening.

“I reach for a ginger emoji at least once a day, so this is the final piece to the emoji puzzle,” 25-year-old redhead Rachel from Hertfordshire told The Independent.

“They’ve been teasing us with the prospect for a while - I hope we don’t have to wait as long as we did for the avocado!”

And 24-year-old redhead Stephanie from Winchester also believes it’s “about time” there was a ginger emoji: “At the moment ginger people have to choose either to represent themselves as blonde or brunette and it just seems unfair!” she told The Independent.

“I can’t wait to finally be able to use an emoji which actually represents me.”

And it’s not the only exciting new emoji we could soon have to play with - also up for consideration is a curly hair emoji, a lobster, a llama, a woman’s flat shoe, a sliced bagel, a cupcake, a skateboard and a teddy bear, amongst others.

We should all be able to represent ourselves in emoji form, and even if your exact hair colour isn’t an option, the launch of a ginger emoji is certainly a step in the right direction.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in