Breastfeeding mothers could soon have their own emoji
There could soon be an emoji representing new moms.
A new proposal to Unicode, the organization that oversees the creation of emoji, would add breastfeeding to the official list of emoji characters. The group will consider the proposal at an upcoming meeting.
New characters for almond, coconut, climber, mermaid, person meditating and pie will also be considered.
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The breastfeeding character was submitted by Rachel Lee, a registered nurse at the University College of London Hospital. In her proposal, Lee writes the emoji would "fill a gap in the current standard which omits the most popular form of nutrition for newborn babies."
She goes on to note that the CDC estimates 3 million mothers participate in breastfeeding in the United States at any given time, and that data from Google suggests the term "breast feeding" is more widely used than "bottle feeding."
The character was also among the most-requested emoji in 2016, according to Unicode. Should the character be approved, it will likely come with different skin tone variations, Unicode says.
The organization also detailed six other emoji characters that will be considered at the group's upcoming November meeting. Among them are three new food emoji, including almond, coconut and pie, as well as "person meditating," mermaid and climber.
If approved, the new characters would be released as part of the Unicode 10.0 update in 2017. Members of Unicode's emoji subcommittee will also consider an orange heart, curling stone, dumpling and face with one eyebrow raised.
In a blog post, Unicode says that more potential characters could be added to the list ahead of the November meeting as the group is still reviewing proposals. Members of the emoji subcommittee need to vote on proposed characters before they can be added to the official release, which is currently slated for mid-2017. This means that most users likely won't see them on their smartphones until, at the earliest, sometime next summer.
Karissa was Mashable's Senior Tech Reporter, and is based in San Francisco. She covers social media platforms, Silicon Valley, and the many ways technology is changing our lives. Her work has also appeared in Wired, Macworld, Popular Mechanics, and The Wirecutter. In her free time, she enjoys snowboarding and watching too many cat videos on Instagram. Follow her on Twitter @karissabe.
