Molly Huddle's advocacy for a female runner emoji came to fruition on August 1 when Apple announced the iOS 10 update would add more than 100 new emoji characters, including female athletes: a runner, mountain biker, surfer, weight lifter, swimmer, and basketball player. 

Huddle, who has been campaigning for the female runner emoji since the fall of 2015, explained her inspiration and process for the iPhone feature on the Saucony blog. 

@MollyHuddle: 2 time Olympian, American record holder, Saucony athlete, Emoji lobbyist? https://t.co/V408NQjqnJ pic.twitter.com/HwFzjLKTpV

— Saucony (@saucony) September 13, 2016

"The idea for the female runner emoji request started in a text conversation last fall with one of my BFFs from high school, Liz McGill," Huddle wrote. 

Huddle went on to describe how many times she wished she could use a female runner emoji in everyday text conversations. 

"When wishing luck to my training partners, congratulating female friends on races, referring to myself running, as I do that for a living," she wrote. 

Huddle began research how emojis are created after she tweeted a message that received a lot of attention on social media. 

When can we get a girl runner emoji? It's hampering my communication #putaponytailonit #itstime #ispeakinemoji

— Molly Huddle (@MollyHuddle) October 18, 2015

Huddle, along with her friends Roisin McGettigan-Dumas and her husband Myles, created a graphic and submitted a proposal for the female runner emoji. Unicode accepted her submission, and company president Mark Davis even tweeted at Huddle that they "welcomed" the proposal. 

"I know that on the grand scale of gender equality, or global issues in general, this is a small and light-hearted topic. However, social media and texting have evolved to become important modes of communication today, and emoji have come along with that," Huddle wrote. 

"This emoji request is sort of like when a little girl asks for a doll that looks more like her. We like to be able to actually see ourselves in the products that are meant to represent us, because there is an underlying message of exclusion if something we use every day doesn't relate to a large category of people using it."

Huddle recently broke the American record in the 10K at the Olympic Games when she finished sixth overall in 30:13.17, which broke Shalane Flanagan's previous record of 30:22.22 set in 2008. Huddle will race her first marathon in New York City this November.