In its most recent advertisement in its #LikeAGirl campaign, feminine hygiene brand Always tackles the problem of gendered emojis.
According to Always, girls around the world send over a billion emojis every day, but there aren’t many that accurately represent them. In a survey of 1,000 women between the ages of 16 and 24 in the UK, the company found that 70% thought emojis shouldn’t be limited to stereotypes.
Men portrayed in emojis are usually depicted playing sports or working in professions like police officers. Whereas women are shown painting their nails, dancing, shopping, and are often portrayed in pink.
One girl in the video notes "There's no girl-professional emojis, unless you call being a bride a profession."
While at first glance emojis can seem like a small issue, they’re more than just little funny faces. They play an important part in how girls choose to represent themselves in text messages and online.
The video aims to scrutinize the impact gendered messages have on self-esteem. Having extremely gendered emojis can send a message that girls and boys are limited in what they can do.
Always has approached the Unicode Consortium, the group that approves emojis, about expanding the available emojis to better represent modern girls. They’ve also asked girls to share what emojis they’d like to see with the hashtag, #LikeAGirl.
“Our vision is that when a girl picks up the phone, in a couple of months, she’ll have an array of options that represent professions and sports and activities that girls do,” Always’ global associate brand director, Michele Baeten, told Mashable.
#LikeAGirl has become a huge effort by Always to promote confidence amongst young women. Last year, the company held a global #LikeAGirl Confidence Summit in 10 cities and partnered with TED to create educational videos to help girls boost confidence as they go through puberty.
Girl emojis are the latest in their series of ads on female empowerment. The first ad was launched during the Super Bowl and asked girls to “run like a girl” or “fight like a girl” in order to transform the derogatory term “like a girl” into an empowering description.
Watch all the ads in the series here.