What we love about emojis is they can really help you to get a message across. Even if you're using them in code, they can intimate exactly what you’re feeling.
Plus, after an update sometime last year, they incorporated same-sex couples into their catalogue of teensy-tiny pictures (still a way to go on race, though, could they not replace one of the THREE types of cable cars with a black person?)
However, some people might think that they still don’t fully represent the swaths of minorities out there, like lesbians.
True, there’s the emoji of two girls in dresses holding hands, but illustrators Katie Streeter and Kim Linn have got a few more ideas about what Emoji HQ should incorporate into their visual-lingo. Via their Instagram account, lesbianemojis, they have suggested a few lesbian-themed emojis for our iPhone keyboards. The account is way popular – it's gained 6,000+ followers in the past month and some of the images are so pretty that you can now buy them online as prints.
Here are our favourite of the lesbian emojis, and ones that maybe straight girls can use, too!
The emoji: Nail Clippers
The reason: Sharp, pointy nails are a definite no-no if you’re planning on didging another girl. In fact, some lesbians really do wonder how straight girls manage to wank when they’ve got acrylics on.
When to use: While explaining to a significant or not-so-significant other that their nails are too long for you to sleep with them. Or when telling someone to let go of their talons post-festival and realise that nothing other than lopping them off will truly eliminate that crystally black-green gunk from underneath them. Or, if someone’s being a bit catty, you can tell them to put the claws away.
The emoji: Piper Chapman and Alex Vause from Orange Is The New Black
The reason: Women love Orange Is The New Black. Lesbians love women. So that, and the copious amounts of lesbian sex and lesbian storylines means that lesbians love Orange Is The New Black. And Alex and Piper, being the central relationship, have the most shippers, obviously.
When to use: Considering OITNB isn’t back on Netflix until at least next year, we won’t be able to use this to tell friends to stop texting us while we’re binge-watching the series for a while yet. In the mean-time, we could use this emoji to describe a criminally intense relationship.
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The emoji: Pillow Princess
The reason: A brief survey of The Debrief office shows that most straight women don’t know what a pillow princess is. So let us explain; it’s a girl (or boy, after all, this lingo is shared with gay men) who just lies back and expects to be waited on in bed, and won’t necessarily 'top' (be the active party in the sexual encounter).
When to use: Whenever someone is being bossy without doing anything to help the situation, when someone is expecting a lot and giving little in return, or when you’re having a regally early night and are feeling really smug about it.
The emoji: Home Depot
The reason: Ok, so you know that Home Depot is basically the American IKEA. Well, lesbians have this urge to merge – because we’re not up against each other in a rivalry sense (there’s no men are from Mars, women are from Venus thing stopping us from hating each other, only shit haircuts and dubious fashion choices – Superdry, anyone?). In other words, we settle faster. Lesbians form intense relationships really quickly, building around a camaraderie of sisterhood, and so end up moving in together quickly.
When to use: Well, don’t we all move in together quickly these days? The rental market being skewed the way it is means that people are forever upping and moving and subletting and couch surfing and all that nonsense. Luckily, IKEA is on hand to provide us with cheap-yet-sustainable storage solutions (and meatball dinners), plants and actually quite nice bedsheets, so next time we’re on the move, we can use this handy emoji. It would make better sense in yellow and blue though.
READ MORE: We Suggest Some Ideas For Those Hitherto Useless Emojis
The emoji: A bed with an RIP sign on it
The reason: Ok, so this really isn’t our favourite at all. The legend goes that, because lesbians get intense early on, they develop a codependency with each other, which means that they eventually go off of sex. This leads to what is known as ‘lesbian bed death’. We don’t like it because a) we really don’t want a sexless life in our future b) we hate the idea that women are so innately anti-sex that, bung two together, and all they want to do is eat granola and stroke cats (actual cats) and wear Birkenstocks.
When to use: If you’re not having a lot of sex. Everyone goes through a bit of a dry spell every now and then, so if this emoji ever makes it to our phones, then let’s all use this. Let’s not make lesbians suffer the sexless stigma alone, please?
Check out lesbianemojis on Instagram for more lesbian emojis as they come!
If you liked this you might also be interested in:
Why All These Displays Of Faux-Lesbianism Really Need To Stop
Here's What Lesbians Think Of US Cosmopolitan's First 'Sex Tips For Lesbians' Series
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.