World’s first menstrual emoji to be released

The world first menstruation-related emoji has been approved by the Unicode Consortium, the official body that manages emojis worldwide. It’s set to be launched along with other 229 new emoji’s in this spring, reports the Beijing Youth Daily.

The move is being hailed by both women and other organizations. The discussion surrounding the new menstruation emoji has become a trending topic on Weibo, China’s twitter-like microblogging social platform.

The emoji, featuring a red bold droplet, has been designed by Plan International UK, a charity designed to advance children and girls’ rights globally.

The move to create the new emoji stems from a survey conducted by the organization in 2017, which found that 48 percent of women aged between 14 and 21 in Britain are embarrassed by their periods.

It’s designed with a goal of “ending the shame around periods,” which “begins with talking about it,” said Lucy Russell, an official of the charity.

A design featuring “a period pant” was an original design put forward to the Unicode Consortium in 2017. However, the newly-approved design eventually won out.

“The launch of the period emoji will allow the public to help fight the stigma of menstruation,” said Wang Qin, associate professor with the Communication University of China. “The spread of the emoji is a symbol of society’s progress, which shows that women’s social rights and interests are deepening and expending across the globe,” Wang added.

For Twitter: A red bold droplet, the world first emoji to signify menstruation, is set to be released this spring.