World Sight Day: Campaigner calling for emojis with glasses

A teenager who wrote to Disney asking for a main character with glasses when she was nine is now turning her attention to emojis.

Lowri saw her wish come true two year later with the release of Encanto and its heroine Mirabel.

Now, on World Sight Day, she is campaigning for more emojis with glasses, instead of just the 'nerd' emoji.

The 13-year-old has written to the organisation which releases new emojis saying there should be an option to add glasses to all emoji faces.

What is wrong with the current emojis with glasses?

All nerd emojis on different platforms have glasses

The only emojis with glasses on platforms like Apple and WhatsApp are the nerd emoji and the teacher emoji.

Lowri says the nerd emoji is a "negative stereotype" of people who wear glasses.

A stereotype is an opinion of what someone is like based on what they look like.

Lowri says showing glasses wearers like this is untrue and harmful.

In a letter to the Unicode Consortium, the body responsible for all new emojis, she, says:

"Unfortunately, the only glasses wearing emoji I can find is a nerd face [...] As I'm sure you know, people who wear glasses are not nerds.

"But unless we address this, there's a chance the next generation will grow up believing this lie about themselves."

Lowri visited a secondary school to launch her #GlassesOn campaign.

One pupil said: "When I realised I needed glasses, I actually didn't want to wear them at all. I thought I wasn't going to be cool. I thought everyone looked cool without glasses, so it made me feel left out."

Another stated: "Glasses are an everyday thing and it's just not fair to not see it on an emoji. I want to express myself with a glasses emoji because that's who I am."

What changes does Lowri want?

Pupils at a UK secondary school signed a petition calling for more face emojis with glasses

There have been lots of improvements to the diversity of emojis over the years including ones that better represent people with disabilities and options to change skin colour.

Lowri's campaign is asking for the option to add glasses to all face emojis, similar to changing skin colour and hair colour.

She told Unicode Consortium: "You have the power to help us change this and that is why I am reaching out to you to ask for your help."

What do you think? What other emojis would you like to see? Tell us in the comments below.