Improved gender parity is now on an iPhone near you. This week, Apple released the iOS 10 update, which features more than 100 new and redesigned emoji characters, with an emphasis on gender diversity.
The update includes a female runner emoji, along with a female mountain biker, surfer, weightlifter, swimmer, and basketball player. Mashable reported that the new female athlete emoji characters would offer a choice of skin tones.
Of course, we’re not sure what happened to the female’s running emoji’s hair tie.
Last fall, Molly Huddle, who in July won the 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters at the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials, tweeted about the need for a female runner emoji and got a positive response.
When she wasn’t busy dominating the U.S. road circuit last fall, she submitted her idea for a female runner emoji character to the Unicode Consortium.
In June, Facebook introduced a female runner emoji character for its Messenger platform.
But true success came yesterday when the female runner girl for iOS 10 was released.
Other elite athletes expressed admiration for Huddle’s off-the-track pursuit.
