Family: Woman, Woman, Boy, Boy Emoji
U+1F469 U+200D U+1F469 U+200D U+1F466 U+200D U+1F466:family_woman_woman_boy_boy:About Family: Woman, Woman, Boy, Boy 👩👩👦👦
Family: Woman, Woman, Boy, Boy () is part of the People & Body group in Unicode. Added in Unicode E2.0. Type on GitHub and Slack to use it. On Discord it's . Click copy above to grab it, paste it anywhere.
Works in iMessage, WhatsApp, Discord, Slack, Instagram, Twitter, Gmail, and every app that supports Unicode.
Often associated with boy, child, family, and 1 more keywords.
Meaning varies across cultures, see cultural notes below.
Scroll down for the full story: meaning, trends, combos, and more.
How it looks
What does it mean?
The family: woman, woman, boy, boy emoji shows two adult women standing with two boys. It's one of the longest ZWJ sequences in common use: 👩 + ZWJ + 👩 + ZWJ + 👦 + ZWJ + 👦, adding up to seven codepoints. Added in Emoji 2.0 (2015), it's part of the family emoji set that expanded representation to include same-sex parents.
This emoji represents a specific family structure: two mothers with two sons. Among same-sex couples raising children, female couples parent at significantly higher rates than male couples: 25% of married female couples have children vs 9% of married male couples. This makes 👩👩👦👦 statistically representative of a very real family structure.
In texting, the emoji works on two levels.
Literal family representation: Two moms, two boys. Used in bios, family photos, and everyday family communication. Lesbian and bisexual women use it to represent their actual families. The specificity of having two sons (not one, not a mix of genders) means this emoji gets used when the family composition exactly matches.
Broader queer family visibility: Even when someone's family doesn't have exactly two boys, 👩👩👦👦 sometimes gets used as the closest available option. The family emoji system doesn't cover every possible combination (a proposal for 7,230 family variants was rejected in 2019), so people pick the one nearest to their actual family.
The emoji sits at the intersection of the 'boy mom' cultural phenomenon and LGBTQ+ family representation, giving it a unique dual identity that neither 👩👩👦 nor 👩👩👧👦 fully captures.
👩👩👦👦 appears in LGBTQ+ family content, Pride celebrations, and motherhood spaces.
On TikTok, lesbian family creators have built massive audiences. Ebony and Denise, an interracial lesbian couple raising three children, have over 7 million TikTok followers and 3 million YouTube subscribers. Their content normalizes two-mom families through everyday moments: school runs, bedtime routines, and the ordinary chaos of raising kids. The hashtags #lesbianmoms and #twomoms have billions of combined views.
The National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study (NLLFS), running since 1986, is the world's longest-running study of planned lesbian families. Its 2024 findings after 38 years confirmed that children raised by lesbian mothers are thriving, with no significant differences in mental health, behavioral adjustment, or adaptive functioning compared to population norms. 90% of the original 75 families still participate.
The family emoji redesign controversy directly affects this emoji. In 2023, Unicode recommended replacing gendered family emojis with gray silhouettes. Apple implemented this in iOS 17.4 (March 2024), meaning on newer iPhones, 👩👩👦👦 may appear as a generic family silhouette rather than showing two women and two boys. This effectively made the representation less specific, which disappointed users who valued seeing their exact family structure.
During Pride Month and Mother's Day, the emoji peaks. Two-mom families celebrating either holiday use it as their family identifier.
👩👩👦👦 represents a family with two women (typically two mothers) and two boys (their sons). It's used by same-sex female couples with sons, or to represent any family grouping of two women and two boys. It can also be used as the closest available option when the exact family emoji match doesn't exist.
What it means from...
This emoji rarely appears in crush contexts since it's specifically about family. If someone sends it, they're discussing their family structure, family goals, or reacting to family content, not flirting.
Between female partners, 👩👩👦👦 represents their family or family aspirations. 'Our family 👩👩👦👦' is an identity statement. 'Someday 👩👩👦👦' signals a desire for children. It's one of the most emotionally significant emojis in a sapphic relationship.
Among friends, it appears when talking about someone's two-mom family, reacting to lesbian parenting content, or celebrating Pride. 'My friends are the most amazing moms 👩👩👦👦' celebrates their family. Friends of queer families use it supportively.
Within a two-mom family, 👩👩👦👦 directly represents the household. Kids sending it in school projects or social media normalize their family structure. Extended family using it shows acceptance and recognition.
From a coworker, it would appear in personal conversations about family, like discussing parental leave, school events, or family photos. Using it supportively signals workplace inclusion without making it a production.
From a stranger, 👩👩👦👦 typically appears in comments on family diversity content, Pride posts, or LGBTQ+ family media. On dating profiles for women, it may signal family goals.
Flirty or friendly?
👩👩👦👦 is purely a family emoji with zero flirty energy. Its significance is emotional and political, not romantic. The only relationship-adjacent use is between female partners discussing family aspirations, which is deeply intimate but in a family-planning sense, not a flirtatious one.
- •Between female partners = family identity or goals
- •During Pride = representation and visibility
- •In family contexts = our household, our unit
- •In advocacy = diverse family support
Emoji combos
Origin story
👩👩👦👦 was added in Emoji 2.0 (2015), the same update that introduced the full range of family emoji combinations. Apple shipped same-sex family emojis in iOS 8.3 (April 2015), months before the Obergefell v. Hodges decision legalized same-sex marriage across the US.
The children's book Heather Has Two Mommies (1989) by Lesléa Newman was the first picture book featuring a same-sex family. It was the 9th most frequently challenged book of the 1990s according to the American Library Association, challenged 42 times. In Wichita Falls, Texas, the city council moved it to an adults-only library section. When libraries reported copies disappearing from shelves, the publisher offered free replacements to the first 500 libraries that called. All 500 slots filled almost immediately.
The road from a banned children's book in 1989 to a standard emoji in 2015 captures the cultural shift in a single timeline.
In 2023, Unicode redesigned family emojis as gender-neutral silhouettes (Emoji 15.1). On Apple devices running iOS 17.4+, the gendered family emojis were replaced with gray silhouettes, making specific family compositions like 👩👩👦👦 less visually distinct.
Around the world
The cultural reception of 👩👩👦👦 maps closely to same-sex adoption legality.
In the 39 countries where same-sex adoption is legal, this emoji is simply a family. Usage is casual, normalized, and unremarkable in progressive communities.
Female same-sex couples have unique family-building paths that male couples don't. Reciprocal IVF (the ROPA method) allows one partner to provide eggs and the other to carry the pregnancy, giving both mothers a biological connection to their child. This is specific to female couples and has no male equivalent. Donor insemination is another common path, alongside adoption and fostering.
Legal challenges persist even in progressive countries. Second-parent adoption (where the non-biological mother legally adopts her partner's child) is still required in many US states to secure parental rights, even for married couples. Cases exist where the non-biological mother lost parental rights because she didn't complete the adoption process, even though both names were on the birth certificate.
Scandinavian countries have the most normalized environment for same-sex families. South America varies: Argentina and Uruguay are progressive, while other countries have more restricted frameworks. Africa and most of Asia criminalize same-sex relationships, making any use of this emoji carry potential risk.
The NLLFS study, running for 38 years with 90% participant retention, is conducted primarily in the United States and provides the strongest longitudinal evidence that children in these families thrive.
The NLLFS (National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study), running since 1986, found no significant differences in mental health, behavioral adjustment, or adaptive functioning between children of lesbian mothers and population norms after 38 years of follow-up. An Australian study found children of same-sex parents scored higher on some measures of child health.
Common paths include donor insemination (one mother is inseminated with donor sperm), reciprocal IVF (one partner provides eggs, the other carries the pregnancy, giving both a biological connection), and adoption. Some couples use the same donor for multiple children so siblings are biologically related.
Heather Has Two Mommies (1989) by Lesléa Newman was the first picture book featuring a same-sex family. It was the 9th most challenged book of the 1990s, challenged 42 times across the US. It remains in print and culturally significant today.
Often confused with
👩👩👦 is two women with one boy. 👩👩👦👦 is two women with two boys. The distinction matters when representing your actual family. One extra child changes which emoji matches.
👩👩👦 is two women with one boy. 👩👩👦👦 is two women with two boys. The distinction matters when representing your actual family. One extra child changes which emoji matches.
👪 is the generic family emoji, now gender-neutral silhouettes on most platforms. 👩👩👦👦 specifically represents two women with two boys. Use 👪 for generic family references.
👪 is the generic family emoji, now gender-neutral silhouettes on most platforms. 👩👩👦👦 specifically represents two women with two boys. Use 👪 for generic family references.
👩👩👦 shows two women with one boy. 👩👩👦👦 shows two women with two boys. The additional boy makes it specific to families with two sons. Both are same-sex female family emojis, just different sizes.
Do's and don'ts
- ✓Use to represent your actual family with pride and normalcy
- ✓Include in Pride Month and Mother's Day celebrations
- ✓Use supportively when someone shares their two-mom family structure
- ✓Treat it identically to how you'd treat any family emoji
- ✗Don't use it mockingly or in arguments about family structures
- ✗Avoid assuming every two-mom family has exactly this composition
- ✗Don't send it to someone in a country where LGBTQ+ expression is dangerous without considering safety
- ✗Don't treat it as more noteworthy than any other family emoji; normalcy is the point
Caption ideas
Aesthetic sets
Type it as text
Fun facts
- •When Heather Has Two Mommies was being removed from library shelves in the 1990s, the publisher offered free replacement copies. All 500 slots filled almost immediately, turning censorship into wider distribution.
- •Reciprocal IVF allows both mothers in a lesbian couple to have a biological connection to their child: one provides the eggs, the other carries the pregnancy. No equivalent exists for male couples.
- •The NLLFS study has a 90% retention rate after 38 years. That's extraordinary for any longitudinal study and means the data is unusually robust.
- •Female same-sex couples parent at nearly three times the rate of male same-sex couples (25% vs 9% of married couples), making two-mom families the most common same-sex parent family structure.
- •👩👩👦👦 is seven codepoints long. If you send it to someone on an older device, they'll see four separate emojis: 👩👩👦👦. The family literally falls apart on unsupported platforms.
Common misinterpretations
- •On Apple devices running iOS 17.4+, 👩👩👦👦 now appears as a gray silhouette rather than showing two women and two boys. This means the specific family representation you intended may not be what the recipient sees.
- •On older or unsupported platforms, the ZWJ sequence breaks into four separate emojis (👩👩👦👦), which loses the 'family unit' meaning entirely and just looks like four random people.
In pop culture
- •The Fosters (2013-2018) - ABC Family drama following lesbian couple Stef and Lena raising five biological, adopted, and foster kids; one of the first network shows centered on same-sex parents
- •Heather Has Two Mommies (1989) - the first picture book featuring a same-sex family, challenged 42 times and ranked 9th most challenged book of the 1990s by ALA
- •The National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study (NLLFS, 1986-present) - world's longest-running study of planned lesbian families, confirming after 38 years that children are thriving with no significant outcome differences
Trivia
For developers
- •👩👩👦👦 is a long ZWJ sequence: U+1F469 + U+200D + U+1F469 + U+200D + U+1F466 + U+200D + U+1F466 (7 codepoints)
- •On unsupported platforms, it falls back to four separate emojis: 👩👩👦👦
- •No skin tone support for family emojis (the 7,230-combination proposal was rejected)
- •Apple redesigned family emojis as gray silhouettes in iOS 17.4 (March 2024); gendered figures no longer shown
- •Use ':family_woman_woman_boy_boy:' in Slack, ':family_wwbb:' on some platforms
In 2024, Apple replaced gendered family emojis with gray silhouettes on iOS 17.4+. Google kept gendered silhouettes. Other platforms have their own designs. On older devices, the ZWJ sequence might break apart into four separate emojis (👩👩👦👦). The rendering varies significantly across devices.
The emoji is part of the Unicode standard and technically available on all modern platforms. However, rendering varies: Apple shows silhouettes (iOS 17.4+), Google shows gendered figures, and some older platforms may not support the ZWJ sequence at all, displaying four separate emojis instead.
Adding skin tone combinations to family emojis would have required 7,230 new variants. This was rejected because it would double emoji font file sizes, create impossible mobile UI challenges, and raise concerns about inadvertent race and family composition messaging. Instead, gender-neutral silhouettes were added in 2023.
See the full Emoji Developer Tools guide for regex patterns, encoding helpers, and more.
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