Woman creates campaign to get ginger ginger emoji

Emma Kelly is a proud redhead but is unimpressed at the lack of appreciation for the ginger-haired – digitally speaking. The editor of Ginger Parrot, a website for redheads, is running an online campaign to introduce the redheaded emoji, after an Apple iOS update that included access to many new racially-diverse emojis failed to create an emoticon for her community. Kelly’s petition on Change.org has already garnered over 13,000 signatures, and while redheads represent less than 2% of the world’s population, the Scottish activist says the emoji would nonetheless recognise some 138 million people worldwide. “It should only take a modifier code to create the ginger version,” Kelly told Metro.

Q: Tell us about how your campaign began

– As most people nowadays, I’m pretty obsessed with the emoji characters on my iPhone. I’ve always wondered why there was no ginger emoji on the keyboard so when it was announced that Apple was going to bring out ‘diversified’ emojis, I thought, “Yes, finally, our time has come!” Being the editor of Ginger Parrot was also a factor. I’m always promoting red hair so I want to be able to do that on my phone. But when the new emojis came out and there wasn’t any with red hair, I was outraged. I knew that the ‘diversified’ versions have been created after a global petition so I thought that would be the best way to show Apple how important it is to redheads and ginger lovers to have an emoji with red hair! Having Ginger Parrot makes it all the more easier to get the word out to redheads all over the world in order to gain signatures.

Q: Is there really a need for an emoji with ginger hair?

– We need a ginger emoji because it’s the only natural hair color not represented on Apple products. Everyone else gets one, why not us?

Q: Do you consider it a discrimination?

– I wouldn’t go that far, but I’d love to know Apple’s reasons why they chose not to include a redheaded emoji. I’ve been told that it should only take a modifier code to create the ginger version.

Q: Scotland has the highest percentage of people with red hair in the world. Is this campaign focused on Scots?

– No, it’s not. It’s a global petition, but seeing as 13% of Scotland’s population are natural redheads, it’s a great place to start. The whole world is only 2% ginger, but that’s still millions of us.

Q: How much signatures are you hoping to collect?

– As many as possible. Our initial target was 10,000 but now we’re at 13,000 and so we’re in the process of getting in contact with Apple. We really hope they listen to us.

Q: What will you do with the petition?

– Hopefully, the comments and signatures will be enough to approach Apple and show them how in demand the ginger emoji is and – fingers crossed – hopefully we’ll get a ginger emoji. That would be amazing. They really should add one – it shouldn’t take much effort on Apple’s part.

To join the campaign, visit:change.org/p/apple-redheads-should-have-emoji-too