Spice Girl Mel B supports young Londoners bid to get Afro hairstyle emojis made standard so “overlooked and forgotten” feel seen

MEL B is lending her support to a group of Young Londoners advocating for greater online representation through the creation of emojis featuring Afro hairstyles.

The community support group Rise.365 emphasizes the lack of Black and mixed-race hairstyles among the nearly 4,000 existing emojis.

The Hackney-based members have criticized the emoji landscape for its lack of diversity and have designed four new options showcasing an Afro, locs, waves, and braids. They are petitioning the Unicode Consortium, which determines standard emojis, to include these designs in digital systems and social media.

To bolster their efforts, they’re encouraging people to search "Afro hair" on Google, a tactic that may impact Unicode's review process for new emojis.

A recent survey by Rise found that about 75% of Black and mixed-race respondents felt their hairstyles were not represented, with 32% feeling “overlooked and forgotten.”

Mel B highlighted the campaign on Facebook, urging her followers to support the initiative: “This Black History Month, @rise.365 is calling for Unicode to bring 4 new hair emojis to provide much-needed representation. You can help by searching ‘Afro hair’ on Google as many times as possible before the end of the month.”