The emoji, which will be a drop of blood, is one of the 230 new emojis revealed by the Unicode Consortium this week.
An emoji to represent periods comes after a campaign led by global women’s rights charity Plan International UK received support from more than 55,000 people.
The charity, which hopes to eliminate the stigma surrounding periods, pushed for a period emoji after a survey of women aged 18 to 34 revealed that 47 per cent believed a period emoji would make it easier talk about periods with female friends and partners.
The blood drop was submitted to Unicode by Plan International UK and NHS Blood and Transplant.
Of the approved emoji, Lucy Russell, head of girls rights and youth at Plan International UK said in the press release: “The inclusion of an emoji which can express what 800 million women around the world are experiencing every month is a huge step towards normalising periods and smashing the stigma which surrounds them.
“For years we’ve obsessively silenced and euphemised periods. As experts in girls’ rights, we know that this has a negative impact on girls; girls feel embarrassed to talk about their periods, they’re missing out, and they can suffer health implications as a consequence.
“An emoji isn’t going to solve this, but it can help change the conversation. Ending the shame around periods begins with talking about it."
Carmen Barlow, digital strategy and development manager at Plan International UK, reiterated the importance of a period emoji in an age where so much of our communication is done via technology.
“Emojis play a crucial role in our digital and emotional vocabulary, transcending cultural and country barriers,” Barlow said. “A period emoji can help normalise periods in everyday conversation.
“For an organisation like Unicode to recognize that menstruation should be represented in this new global language is a huge step towards breaking down a global culture of shame around periods."
The news of the period emoji was met with joy on social media.
“We’re getting a period emoji and it’s bloody brilliant news,” one person wrote.
The new release features a range of other inclusive emojis as well.
In addition to emojis that represent people with disabilities, the release will also expand the range of emojis for different cultures and relationships so that everyone feels represented.
The emojis are expected to be available by spring 2019.
The Independent
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