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Hillary Clinton's attempt to use emoji backfires

Clinton's campaign asked the Twittersphere on Wednesday: "How does your student loan debt make you feel? Tell us in 3 emojis or less."
Democratic U.S. presidential hopeful and former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton leaves the podium after she spoke to members of the media July 14, 2015 on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty)
Democratic U.S. presidential hopeful and former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton leaves the podium after she spoke to members of the media July 14, 2015 on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.

Hillary Clinton's latest attempt to hang with the cool kids on social media appears to have backfired.

In an effort to appeal to young voters and piggy-back off the roll-out of her $350 billion college affordability plan on Monday, the Democratic candidate for president's campaign asked the Twittersphere on Wednesday: "How does your student loan debt make you feel? Tell us in 3 emojis or less."

College debt has been one of Clinton's signature issues for a long time -- even dating back to her 2008 presidential campaign -- and the tweet was likely meant to incite a earnest conversation with millennials that are struggling to pay back their loans.

While some users played along and tweeted back with three emoji, many of the messages ended up poking fun at the candidate for using cartoon images to talk about a serious issue:

After all the replies, the candidate did answer back, with a sense of humor.