Grandmother creates emoji to better reflect older people

LONDON -- Emoji aren't just a means of embellishing our messages with poop, monkeys and salsa dancers. They're a way of expressing our identities.

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But, what if the information desk girl or the unicorn emoji don't represent who you are?

56-year-old Diane Hill -- a grandmother from Coventry, UK -- is fed up of emojis that don't cater for the over-50s, and don't reflect what older people want to do and say.

She got in touch with the BBC, after it launched an outreach project asking listeners if the media could do more to reflect the lives and people around them.

This emoji is inspired Hill's back pain. Credit: Chris Oxenbury

Hill complained that there were currently no emoji to reflect the lifestyles of older generations.

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The idea for a range of emoji came out of some embarrassing emoji-related exchanges that Hill had had after injuring her back in a car accident.

Spending the kids' inheritance money. Credit: Chris Oxenbury

"I have a really bad back and I wanted to tell my friend about it with an emoji that looked like me when I writhed around the around the floor in pain," Hill told Mashable.

"Do you know what, stuff that I wanna say to my friends like "I'm going out shopping to spend the kids' inheritance", or an emoji that lets my kids and grandkids know that they're in big trouble, I can't find an emoji to depict that," Hill continued.

False teeth falling out. Credit: Chris Oxenbury Bingo eyes. Credit: Chris Oxenbury

BBC Coventry and Warwickshire commissioned local artist Chris Oxenbury to design the emoji -- or 'emoldji' as it's been called -- based on Hill's ideas.

The range of emoji includes false teeth falling out, memory pills, aches and pains.

Brain pills to help with memory loss. Credit: Chris oxenbury

The designs have been sent off to the Unicode Consortium for consideration in the hope that they will appear on mobile phones and devices across the world in the future.