Rise.365, a community support group, said although there are almost 4,000 emojis, not a single one features a black or mixed-race hairstyle, so its members from Hackney have decided to address this by designing four new emojis. It said the emoji designs also feature braids and locs, styles worn and designed by the young people it helps.

Rise.365 polled 104 of its black and mixed-race members and found 61% experienced discrimination or bullying because of their hair type or hairstyle.  About three quarters (74%) of those surveyed felt there was not an emoji that represented their hairstyle, and almost a third (32%) said this made them feel overlooked and forgotten.

The community group said it now plans to submit their icons to the Unicode Consortium, which approves or rejects new designs. Joyclen Brodie-Mends Buffong, founder of Rise.365, hopes that introducing these emojis “will not only help more black and mixed race people feel equally represented”, but that it will start “conversations around the bigger issues of texturism and Afro hair discrimination”.

Partnership for Young London delivered a project called Know Your Roots. The project used mixed media technology to develop art work that celebrates the beauty of black hair