Before you read my post, just take your phone out for a second and look at the emojis that are available right now. Don’t take them for granted like you normally do. Look at them as if you were a young girl trying to find herself – trying to represent herself in a text.
A girl who plays basketball.
A girl who runs track.
A girl who loves to ski.
She’s nowhere to be found. NOW, if you are looking for a girl who loves to paint her nails… or who loves a good haircut… YOU ARE ALL SET.
Talk about stereotypes!! Ridiculous. Imagine a formidable mind in a world where text messaging is the ONLY way young people communicate. What message does that send?
Girls can only look pretty.
Girls are not strong.
Girls shouldn’t do sports.
It’s subliminal and devastating. That’s why Always has started a campaign to shed some light on what’s happening in today’s tech world. Take a look at the Always #LikeAGirl Girl Emojis” video to see a few young women react to text message emojis once they were asked to find themselves in the mix.
I have a young daughter… and Natalie is so much more than someone who likes to do her hair and makeup.
She likes to get dirty and run 5ks with her family. 
She enjoys archery with her friends.
She raises money for charitable causes with her classmates.
My girl loves to run and play and race and explore and get dirty. Sure, Natalie has a more feminine side as well. But she is well rounded – she is more. She can be anything she wants to be and the images that are out there in the Universe should represent that.
What do you think about your daughter? What defines her? Who is she? Is she someone who is multifaceted? Does she deserve more imagery in the tech world?
There simply aren’t enough emojis out there for text messsaging and this is subliminally teaching something to our young girls. At puberty, girls’ confidence plummets – in fact according to a recent study by Always, 72% of girls feel held back by society, which they feel dictates what they should and should not do.
On International Women’s Day, at a moment where female achievements are celebrated worldwide, we want to empower girls to show that they can do more than get a manicure, wear a tiara or dance in a red dress – in their favorite language and beyond. The Always #LikeAGirl campaign aims to help stop the drop in confidence girls experience at puberty by making every girl feel Unstoppable #LikeAGirl.
Always wants girl emojis to be as unstoppable as girls and is encouraging girls to share what emojis would express all the amazing things they are & do #likeagirl. I asked Natalie to draw a few emojis that she would like to see on her iPad and I just LOVED what she came up with!!
She chose a soccer player because Natalie’s been on a team for quite some time and doesn’t have any imagery to represent her when texting her friends about an upcoming game.
Maybe if there were more images of girls in sports when I was growing up, I wouldn’t have waited so long to join my first team. I never pushed myself. I never thought I could do anything. I was 37 before I became a member of a recreational sports team – for pleasure – and that was after really finding myself for the first time.
In fact, this year, I decided to train for a half marathon — from SQUARE ZERO. Talk about going from nothing to EVERYTHING. But I know it will be good for me and good for my daughter to see. Girls can do anything they set their hearts and minds on. It’s something my 12 year old self would never have imagined. I spent most of my time growing up in NYC hanging out on my stoop with my friends and now I’ve started an 8 month training program that is so far out of my realm of reality that it scares me! But you know what? In my heart, I know I can do it and I want my daughter to see that I believe in myself so that she can grow up reaching for the stars as well.
Because after all, if there’s one thing I want to teach Natalie … it’s to live life to the fullest and to love every moment of her life the only way I know how … like a girl.
* this is a sponsored post – all opinions are my own.
Mimi Green
Wednesday 9th of March 2016
I am an emoji user big time, I love when I can get my image across with an image. I'm a visual person and it adds a nice layer to the comment.
Like your daughter I like to get down and dirty a bit too. I've done the Color run several times as well as a few muds runs. Yet I also love nail polish and other uber girly things.