Unicode Consortium proposes 51 new emojis including T-Rex, woman in hijab

The Unicode Consortium’s Emoji Subcommittee proposed 51 new emojis for version 10.0 of the Unicode due out next June, among them a vampire, mermaid, flying saucer, breastfeeding woman, and a woman in a hijab.

The consortium decides which characters and emojis appear in keyboards. Unicode is used by companies like Apple, Google, Oracle, and IBM as a character encoding standard.

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If approved, the hijab emoji proposed by a group that includes Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian and a Muslim teenage girl will be the first depiction of a Muslim woman in emojis provided by Unicode.

Winter sports emojis were also requested, so a curling stone and sled are emoji candidates. A man and woman in the sauna, proposed by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Finland, also made the shortlist.

In the food category, a number of new emojis — broccoli, coconut, pie, pretzel, and a sandwich — have been proposed.

A grinning smiley face with star eyes, face with open mouth vomiting, and shocked face with an exploding head are also among expressions being considered this year.

Mythical creatures are making an appearance too, with a fairy, vampire, mermaid, genie, elf, and zombie.

Emojis that did not make the cut this year include an almond, leafy greens, a face with lightbulb, and a face banging against a wall, according to emoji subcommittee member and Emojipedia CEO Jeremy Burge.

Once approved by the Unicode Consortium in May 2017, Unicode version 10 and final versions of proposed emojis will be released in June 2017. The Unicode Consortium is made up of more than 100 individuals, as well as major tech companies like IBM, Apple, Oracle, and Google.