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If you put a tray in our skier emoji’s hands, he would
Last Lift look like the lost kid in a food court, looking for his parents

and wondering why he’s on skis. He doesn’t depict the kind
of movement that skiers deserve: racing, jumping, spraying
snow, or the purity of the joys of skiing or boarding.
EMOJIS ARE FOR EMOTING Don’t get me started on the snowboarder emoji. As
Why aren’t there better ones for snowsports? a goofy snowboarder myself, I’m happy to have a goofy
snowboarder. But he—not she, because “she” doesn’t exist,
although other sport emojis have gender-specific athletes—
BY HALLEY O’BRIEN
is just too goofy to begin with. And call me crazy, but per-
haps we’d also like to ski or ride to the left from time to time.
s and s, let’s have a serious chat about emojis. Furthermore, although our sport is not terribly diverse
Whether you love them or hate them, you have to give (only 1 percent of visits are from African Americans), why
them their due. If you think they’re just another way to do equally homogenous sports like golf, water polo, and
dress up a text message, you’re missing the point. surfing all receive five different racial options for their emojis?
I’m here to defend the emoji—to recognize its usefulness
as a form of expression. After all, the emoji keyboard serves
as its own language, capable of communicating thoughts,
feelings, emotions, locations, and other various sentiments Chloe Kim, who won a snowboarding Gold medal for the
that would otherwise be riddled with spelling and grammatical US at Pyeongchang, deserves her own snowboarding emoji.
errors. (If only we could create an emoji for “your” and Also, what’s with the lack of skier and snowboarder facial
“you’re,” or “their,” “there,” and “they’re.”) expressions? Many other new-age emojis show emotion.
Emojis are a magical way to bridge a language barrier, Remember: These emojis are tiny representations of who
convey a reaction, say I love you, share what you’re doing or we are, what we’re doing, and how we identify ourselves.
who you’re with, or add a special little touch of color to your Not all hope is lost, though. According to the Unicode
comment. I think an emoji might be the most literal version Consortium, the group responsible for developing new
of a picture being worth a thousand words. (After all, “e” is emojis, anyone—individuals, non-profits, companies, and
Japanese for “picture” while “moji” means “written character.”) governments—can submit a proposal for an emoji. Those
Which brings me to the point of all this. As an industry submitting their ideas need to make a compelling case that
that relies heavily on its imagery to market and promote itself— the proposal is stronger than the many others submitted, as
especially to Millennials and Generation Z, who thrive on there is a limited capacity for designing new emojis each year.
emojis to communicate—don’t you think we should have While the proposal must meet certain criteria, the seem-
better representation of the very sports we love the most? ingly most important factor is the prospective usage. Basically,
the Unicode Consortium wants to make sure your emoji
Look what we’re working with: is going to be one of the popular kids on the playground.
Otherwise, he (or she) is just taking up coveted space that
Ok, so they’re not horribly offensive by any stretch. But they could be used for something more pressing . . . like the
are uninspiring. Bland. Unremarkable. Hardly representative long-awaited bacon emoji, or the new mango emoji.
of who we are, what we do, or how winter sports convey their
joys and thrills. So consider this a call to arms, ski industry!
In contrast, take a look at the basketball player emojis.
These little athletes look strong, fast, and We need a better shorthand representation of ourselves. We’re
determined, as if they’re moments away athletes capable of both grace and attack, style and sex appeal.
from shooting the game-winning three pointer at the buzzer. I don’t think it’s that large of an ask to update the skier and
Most important, they depict real movement, and both genders snowboarder emoji to reflect the latest and greatest trends.
are represented. We deserve tiny little pieces of inspiring art on shred sticks—
Even the fencer looks more fierce and fun than the skier not uninspired stick figures.
and snowboarder. How they managed to make a bee- And while we’re at it, let’s add a shot-ski emoji to this
keeper holding a tiny sword seem more dynamic than petition so I never have to use letters again. Until then, I’ll keep
our winter athletes, I’ll never understand. thinking the skier and snowboarder emojis are simply .

68 | NSAA JOURNAL | FALL 2018