Last week, Always unveiled a new installment of its #LikeAGirl video campaign. The film, with its message of female empowerment, quickly racked up more than nine million views (and counting) on YouTube.
Here’s an exclusive look at the director’s cut of the Girl Emojis video. If you haven’t seen the original version, scroll down to the bottom of this article to find out what all of the buzz is about!
Billions of people use emojis on a daily basis, but Always took a moment to stop and say, “why not more female emojis?” As the original video notes, there are plenty of girl-centric characters, but they revolve around beauty and marriage: 
. But the guys? They get exciting emoji careers like a police officer 
and a variety of athletes 
.
The young girls interviewed in the video, understandably, didn’t think that was fair. “There’s no girls in the professional emojis,” one girl said, “unless you count being a bride a profession.”
Based on the response and rousing support from feminist icons like Emma Watson and First Lady Michelle Obama, there’s a consensus on the topic.
In exclusively premiering the director’s cut of the #LikeAGirl film, we talked with the woman behind the camera: director Lucy Walker.
“It’s my sincere hope that the Unicode Consortium, which is the world governing body of emojis, introduces a new and wider range of female emojis,” Walker said. “As a society we need to be doing everything possible to support and empower girls, particularly around the age of puberty when, as a wealth of research shows us, their confidence tends to flag.”
The girls in the video have some good ideas for the Unicode Consortium as to what kinds of female emojis they should consider adding to the keyboard: a female wrestler, a female cop, a female lawyer, “and a super badass girl.”
As for Walker, “obviously a female film director emoji would be at the very top of my list!” she said. “And a female boss emoji, because corporate boards and politics are so male-dominated I think it would encourage women to see emojis in these roles.”
While we’re adding emojis to the keyboard, Walker thinks that boys and men could use a few more emoji role models as well. “Maybe a devoted Dad emoji, because a lot of my male friends now have babies and are great fathers. I owe so much to my own father believing in me and believing in educating girls, so seeing a dad-with-stroller emoji or dad-with-daughter emoji might be great to share, also.”
Despite a clear lack of empowering female emojis, Walker thinks that this rising generation of girls has a bright future.
“I was blown away by how eloquent and passionate and clear-eyed the girls we met were,” she said. “The future is in great hands with the next generation of girls. I have great confidence in them and I wish for them that we can support them in feeling as confident as possible.”
Watch the original video:
Which emojis would you like to see added to the keyboard on your phone?
View the original at Parade or follow us on Twitter, Facebook or Google+