Incels, kidney beans and the purple heart: All the Gen Alpha emojis, decoded.

Watching the Netflix series Adolescence as a parent of tweens and teens was terrifying. It was the conversation starter nobody asked for, but we desperately needed.

It's opened our eyes to how teens have quietly transformed innocent-looking emojis we use daily into coded messages with entirely different meanings.

If you've been panic-googling "what does 🫘 mean??" at 1am. You're not alone. So we've decoded the emojis in Adolescence for you. Plus all the ones they didn't warn you about.

Watch: Parenting in the 80s Vs Now. Post continues below.

The hidden meanings behind Gen Alpha emojis.

Red Pill Emoji 💊 A nod to the dystopian film The Matrix. This little red pill symbolises "seeing the truth" in 'manosphere' communities — the online spaces promoting misogynistic views. When your teen uses this, they're signalling they've "awakened" to supposed "truths" about gender dynamics. Let's hope you never see this one.

Explosion Emoji 💥Paired with the red pill can indicate pent-up sexual frustration or someone identifying as an incel (involuntarily celibate). Not exactly the content you want in your kid's chat history.

100 Emoji 💯

Kidney Bean Emoji 🫘 The once humble bean is a derogatory slur on women, or, used to identify as an incel.

Heart emojis and the coloured meanings.

The show also spoke about how different coloured love hearts can now mean different things.

Red Heart ❤️: Still means love (phew, one thing hasn't changed)

Purple Heart 💜: Horniness (sorry to ruin this one for you)

Yellow Heart 💛: Mutual interest ("I like you, you like me")

Pink Heart 💗: "I'm interested, but not that way"

Orange Heart 🧡: "Don't worry, it'll be okay" (reassurance)

Other emoji's not in Adolescence you should know.

🍑 — Refers to a person's bottom

🌽 — Used to represent "porn," particularly on TikTok

🌮 — Represents female genitals

🍆 — Symbolises male genitals

🧠 — Indicates performing oral sex/'head'

👅 — Suggests oral sex on a female

💦 — Represents sexual climax or ejaculation

🍒 — Symbolises breasts, testicles, or sometimes virginity

🍝 — Code for nude photos (a play on the word "noods")

👀 — Signifies the exchange of explicit images

🥵 — Expresses someone is "hot" or attractive, used on a crush's photo

🤤 — Shows sexual desire (commonly used when receiving explicit photos)

😈 — Indicates feeling mischievous or sexually playful

🥴 — Expresses intoxication, sexual excitement, or discomfort

🌶️ — Indicates "spicy" content of a sexual nature

🔨 — Refers to sexual intercourse or activity

⏳ — Comments on someone having an hourglass figure

🚛 — "Dump truck," describing a larger bottom

🧚‍♀️✨— Often attached to mean comments with a sarcastic tone

🧢 — Indicates something is a lie or untrue (also called "cap")

🤡 — Used when making a mistake or feeling foolish

🙃 — Shows frustration or annoyance about a situation

🥶 — Reaction to something harsh or cruel, meaning "that was cold"

👻 — Refers to being "ghosted" (ignored or dumped without explanation)

👉👈 — Displays shyness or nervousness, especially when flirting

👁️ 👄 👁️ — Expresses resignation, meaning "it is what it is"

🧿 — Used to protect against the "evil eye" or bad energy

💳 — Shows desire for something seen in a TikTok video

🐴 — Represents ketamine, a powerful dissociative drug

🍃 — Code for cannabis/marijuana

❄️ — Symbolises cocaine

🎈 — Stands for nitrous oxide (often called "NOS" or laughing gas)

🎱 — Eight-ball emoji used to indicate drug dealers

🔌 — Plug emoji representing someone who can "plug you in" with drugs

Even the abbreviations have evolved beyond our ancient "LOL" and "BRB" days. CU46 means "see you for sex" and KPC is "keep parents clueless." Well, mission accomplished on that front, until now.

But here's the reassuring bit – simply by reading this, you're already ahead of the game. And we need to be. Getting your teens to be open to conversations about it with you is the other half of the battle.

Parenting in the digital age is not for the faint-hearted, but we're all in this together. Just don't use the 💜 in your family group chat.

What do you think of the new world of emoji's? Share in the comments below.

Feature Image: Created with AI via Google Labs.