How Katrina Parrott – the inventor of diverse emoji is now using them to take on COVID-19

PRNewswire | As a child, Katrina Parrott never dreamt she would one day be breaking down racial barriers with emoji. In fact, as one of 8 African American siblings raised by a single mother, she wasn’t even expected to go to college. But after defying the odds, graduating from American University and becoming a cross-functional leader in the aerospace industry, she had a classic a-ha moment: her daughter Katy, a Public Health PreMed student at UT, was texting someone and blurted out, “wouldn’t it be nice to have an emoji that looked like the person sending them?”

It was at that instant that Parrott was inspired to invent the world’s first diverse emoji called iDiversicons. Finally, African Americans and others had emojis that actually represented them, not someone else. Parrott’s hard-earned efforts in pioneering the five-skin tone emoji standard now used by Apple and Google were eventually highlighted in the documentary film Picture Character, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and the American Film Institute DOCS, as well as countless other news publications across the country.

And today, as the Black Lives Matter movement coincides with the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, Parrott is using iDiversicons™ to not only help as many different people as possible express themselves, but to also encourage everyone to wash their hands and wear a mask – 2 simple acts, but also 2 of the most effective ways to stop the insidious Coronavirus in its tracks.

So help Parrott overcome yet another barrier by downloading the iDiversicons™ app and sending the handwashing and mask emoji to your friends and loved ones. While you are at it, you can also send emoji featuring various ethnic groups, gender neutral, gender equality, hairstyles, religions, fraternities, celebrities, sports figures, holidays, mascots, disabilities, political affiliations, and more.

Throughout her life, Parrott has had to overcome some of the worst obstacles you can imagine. It is her goal now to help others overcome theirs.

iDiversicons™ emoji and the new iOS animated 5-skin tone handwashing and mask GIFs are currently available for purchase from the Apple App Store at https://apps.apple.com/us/app/idiversicons-worlds-first/id947572946. Coming soon will be our new iDiversicons Android Sticker App in the Google Play Store.

About iDiversicons™: iDiversicons™ is a product of Cub Club Investment, which is headquartered in League City, Texas. Since launching the app in the App Store on October 11, 2013, Katrina Parrott has served as its chief executive officer.

Source: Katrina Parrott