For years, Lowri Moore has struggled to ensure that children with glasses are no longer considered ‘nerds’ – Disney’s bespectacled heroine in ‘Enchant’ is to her credit.
Now, the 13-year-old Brit has a new goal: she wants to ensure that all emojis not only change skin and hair color, but can also be outfitted with glasses.
When she was nine years old, Lowri convinced Disney to create a bespectacled heroine for the animated film Encanto. Her campaign #GlassesOn (roughly: putting on glasses) has since inspired children and young people and their parents around the world.
Writing for the Unicode Consortium
Now, the girl from the English county of Nottinghamshire has her eye on another US giant: in a letter to the California-based Unicode Consortium, which is responsible for emoji standardization, she demands that the tiny pictograms be labeled with the “cool” ones in the future. Glasses can be provided.
Many people believed that children with corrective lenses would no longer be derided by their peers as “glasses snakes” – but this is not true, Lowri said: “We are in contact with a teacher in Botswana so he can put glasses on children, but he said most didn’t even want to wear them for fear of being considered boring”.
The risk of bullying for people who wear glasses is higher
In fact, research has found that young people who wear glasses are 35% more likely to be bullied at school than their peers who don’t wear glasses. Lowri warns that this could have serious consequences for those affected. “If they don’t wear their glasses, it hinders their learning – and that can limit their career opportunities.” This is “unfair”.
Lowri’s new campaign was sparked by her mother trying to find an emoji that looked like her daughter. “All she found was a ‘nerd’, a grandmother, a teacher and a teacher.” Lowri doesn’t think that’s enough. That’s why it now requires Unicode to be able to add glasses to existing emojis. As a precaution, the London offices of Google and Meta also received a copy of her letter.
Letter to Disney three years ago
Lowri’s struggle to gain acceptance among young eyeglass wearers began three years ago with a letter to entertainment giant Disney asking for more characters with corrective lenses. Two years later, “Enchantment” hero Mirabel Madrigal actually wore glasses, and director Jared Bush revealed that Lowris had inspired him: “I’m your biggest fan,” he replied to her letter – albeit for confidentiality reasons only after the release of movie .
IAPB named her “Activist of the Year”
The International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) named the British student “Activist of the Year” this year. Lowri’s campaign is helping to raise awareness of the dangers of wearing glasses, says Jessica Thompson, a representative for the IAPB. Glasses are the “most effective health measure” for school-age children: “They reduce the risk of failing school by 44%.”