Back in 2015, Jennifer Lee was texting with her friend when they noticed something was missing

from their iPhones.

We were texting about dumplings because that is what we do as Chinese-ish women.

And I sent her a picture of dumplings.

She sent me back a bunch of emoji.

She's like, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, knife and fork, knife and fork.

And then there's like this pause.

And she's like, oh, Apple doesn't have a dumpling emoji.

And I was like, huh, that's really strange.

Because every culture basically has their equivalent of yummy goodness inside a cobalt hydrate shell. You know,

empanadas, parrochi, ravioli, kinkali, palmini, dumplings are universal. Emboji, we're also universal.

How is there no dumpling emoji? Like, clearly the world is broken. And that discovery raised a

question that Lee had never thought about before.

I was like, where do emoji come from? By one estimate, we send around 10 billion emoji every day

in text messages, social media posts, dating apps, emails, and workplace chat rooms. That's around

115,000 of them every second.

And the craze extends beyond the keyboard.

There are emoji plush toys, stickers, books, jewelry,

even an emoji movie that grossed more than $200 million at the box office.

Most of us instantly recognize the laughing face, the pile of poop, the eggplant, and the skull.

But it's less known who decides which emoji make it onto our phones, who designs them,

and how they're changing the way we communicate.

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