Child petitions Apple to change ‘nerd’ emoji for being “offensive” to glasses-wearers

A 10-year-old boy has started a petition to get Apple to change its “nerd emoji”. He is concerned about its depiction of people who wear glasses.

The emoji is a strange phenomenon. They help streamline communication to a degree, but the varying contexts in which they can be used are cause for confusion to some.

Take the seemingly innocuous thumbs-up emoji. There were recent attempts to ‘cancel’ it over its perceived hostility. In another instance, a judge ruled it a valid contractual agreement. They obviously have some degree of power.

That’s what 10-year-old Oxfordshire boy Teddy Cottlel is arguing. He’s started a petition in hopes that Apple will change the appearance and name of what it calls the “nerd emoji”.

Teddy believes that the nerd emoji could be hurtful to people who wear glasses thanks to its name and buck-toothed appearance. He explained his reasoning and plan of action in an interview with the BBC.

“They’re making people think we’re nerds and it’s absolutely horrible,” Teddy, who himself wears glasses, explained. “It’s making me feel sad and upset, and if I find it offensive there’ll be thousands of people around the world that find it offensive too.”

“I think people who wear glasses are cool and I am worried that people who are getting glasses for the first time will think they are going to look like rabbits or rats,” he wrote in his petition called ‘No Nerd Emoji!’. “I am asking ‘Apple’ to change the name of the emoji to the Genius Emoji and change the design to the new one I have designed below.”

Teddy is being helped in the endeavour by one of his teachers Lisa Baile who was inspired by the fact that “he fights for what he believes in”. “He’s quite vocal about it but in quite a grown-up way, and I think that should be supported, encouraged, and commended as well,” she explained.

At the time of writing, Teddy’s petition has 563 signatures from people supporting his effort. “I’m signing this because I wear glasses and am a specialist in my field (a nerd?) but I most certainly do not look like the emoji!” one signatory wrote.

Apple has yet to respond to the petition but changes to the company’s emojis have been made before. We’ll be sure to update this story with any developments.