Emoji can’t convey everything.
For instance, you can’t currently use emoji to indicate that you’re a breastfeeding woman in a hijab who’s also a zombie hungry for brains.
But that’s about to change.
The Unicode Consortium, the shadowy organization that approves and encodes emoji, has announced 69 new characters coming to an Instagram caption near you.
Jeremy Burge, the founder of Emojipedia and a member of Unicode’s emoji subcommittee, said gender-neutral figures are among the most exciting additions. A child, adult and elderly person without clear indicators of being male or female will be joining the largely gendered fray of human emoji. He said it represents a new level of inclusivity.
“If you don’t feel strongly one way or the other” about your gender, Burge said, “it’s nice to have an option in the middle.”
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