There’s Finally An Emoji For Periods. We Can’t Believe It Needed A Campaign To Be Included!

We live in a world where people pit an egg against a baby for the most likes on Instagram, there are women unable to control their exploding ovaries over every picture of  Taimur Ali Khan, and we spend more time doing stupid challenges involving leaping out of cars than actual work. And no where are our priorities more obvious than on our phones. The most frequently used words, the most used emojis, they are a tap away.

But somehow, with all those emojis. All of them, the buildings, the babies, the fruits and the vegetables, nobody thought to include an emoji about periods. It took this many years of cellphone use to include this. The Californian company that regulates and manages emojis, by agreeing to add a period emoji in the collection.

However, this did not happen overnight. Yes, we needed to fight to include a basic human function in the emojis. The chocolate ice cream/ shit emoji was considered important but we had actually have a campaign for periods.  This was a result of a long campaign by the humanitarian organisation – Plan International- that are aiming to break the stigmas built around menstruation by adding this to our ‘digital vocabulary.’

The Advocacy Director of Plan International, Hayley Cull said that, “Adding a period emoji is a small but important step in normalising periods”, and we stand behind their idea. She further added, “This emoji is part of normalising the conversation around it. We know that emojis are really part of our vocabulary now, they’re part of our digital and emotional vocabulary, and it kind of transcends cultural barriers. So it’s just about making it an easier part of everyday conversation.”

The approved emoji by Unicode has been settled as a red droplet of blood. Gather around ladies, this might be our only stab at getting an emoji for PMS.