Ginger equality campaign may finally bring us redhead emojis

Culture By Lindsey Kline

When we’re told we don’t have souls, it hurts. And Kick A Ginger Day has been annually agonizing. But not having a redhead emoji that represents us? That’s been far more painful.

At long last, a ginger equality campaign shows promise to bring carrot-topped characters to our cell phones and computer screens.

The Unicode Technical Committee, the men and women who choose and develop our emojis, will be meeting next week at the Apple campus in Silicon Valley to discuss how to implement the redhead emoticon.

The lack of a redhead emoji has been the most frequent complaint from users in the past 3 months, reported Emojipedia, an Emoji reference website. But it seems persistent social media campaigning is finally coming to fruition.

One of the more popular petitions demanding the ginger emoji was organized in Scotland, where redheads make up about 10 percent of the nation’s population. Throughout the rest of the world, redheads compose less than two percent of the population. The Scot's online campaign called for diversification inclusive of gingers, and garnered over 20,000 signatures.

When exploring the many different methods of implementing the character, the options range from a single redhead person to allowing any emoji to have red hair.

Unfortunately, as Emojipedia notes, with such a small population of redheads, the chances of adding a red hair modifier to all customizable emojis seem slim. But entertaining the idea of adding any kind of red-headed representation brings us hope.

If the Unicode Committee moves forward with the ginger emoji, we’d still have to wait at least a year to enjoy one. It seems the earliest we’ll see a redhead emoji will be in 2018. Until then, we’ll have to make due with the only other red-haired emoji at our disposal. It’s just a shame it’s so hideous.