We asked complete strangers to design their own unique emoji
😇🐥👄` 👻🌵 😂 💙🐟 👑 🐢 🐵✌️🐶 🐍🍑 🍒🎁🍋👯 💗 💔 😜 👀 💃🍔🍭🚨 ⛄️😷 💜😡 😱 🔥🍓👠🔮📕😶 🐼 When words fail us, emoji are always there to fill in the blanks. But there are times when finding that perfect emoji for a situation or story is almost impossible. To scope out people's emoji requirements, Mashable took to the streets of London during fashion week to ask strangers to design their very own unique emoji. And, their designs were very revealing...
Whiskey-drinking girl emoji
"A try-hard French girl with a glass of whiskey in her hand." -- Bianca De Zilva, designer at TJC.
Two-faced emoji
"So, it's got a smiley face behind it with a heart and a straight-faced mask being torn off. That represents me. It's hard for me to show emotions sometimes. But, inside I'm smiling. Sometimes I'm smiling on the outside but not on the inside." -- Reece Johnson, fashion student.
Curly-haired emoji
"It represents someone who's happy and fun and eccentric." -- Prince Cassius, TV presenter
Eyebrows emoji
"I really like doing my eyebrows so I've made them eyebrows. I find it quite therapeutic. When your eyebrows are on fleek and I'm talking to my friends, I feel like I'd send them the eyebrow emoji." -- Lucy Rutherford, art student.
Afro emoji
"I want to see a black face with an afro." -- Rosetta, bass player.
Free spirit emoji
"My emoji represents a free spirit. I always smile a lot. And the reason the eyes are closed is because you should always be happy no matter what you're going through. It's not as tough because you'll always rise above it. You'll wake up the next day. Hashtag free spirit." -- Marco Lopez, mentor and writer.
Activist emoji
"I'm here to protest against the fur industry." -- Adrien Bercon, activist.
Nature and fear emoji
"Love and respect of nature." -- Emily Tobert (left), politics student. "I'm terrified of absolutely everything so mine is the fear." -- Tasha Jasmine (right), retail assistant.
Memoji
"It's me." -- Kaori Hukumoto, hair and makeup artist.
Mermaid emoji
"It is a mermaid's tale. I think everyone loves a good mermaid. And it matches my dress!" -- Shireeka Devlin, designer.
Smiley face
"Because I'm happy." -- Ewa Michalik, stylist.
High fashion emoji
"It represents my beautiful outfit with some feminine touches in the makeup and the hair." -- Alicja Jakubowska, model.
PJ's emoji
Two squiggle emojis designed by 4-year-old PJ Rose, model.
Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.
A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.
Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.
