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Hello Kitty creators reveal the beloved character is not a cat.
On 18 July, Sanrio, the Japanese entertainment company that created Hello Kitty, made an astounding revelation for the iconic character’s 50th anniversary. In an appearance on the Today Show, Sanrio director of retail business development Jill Koch said: “Hello Kitty is not a cat.”
“She’s actually a little girl born and raised in the suburbs in London,” Koch added. “She has a mom and dad and a twin sister Minnie, who is also her best friend. She enjoys baking cookies and making new friends.”
“[Hello Kitty] weighs three apples and is five apples tall,” she continued, revealing that Hello Kitty also has a pet cat named Charmmy Kitty at home.
The revelation sparked a myriad of emotions in fans, ranging from denial to shock, and later, confusion.
“Hello Kitty is a cat in my eyes,” one user wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. Meanwhile, another added: “Its a girl cat and nothing will ever change my mind.”
Someone else commented: “That’s a full cat with whiskers and fur btw.”
“I have never seen a human being with real life whiskers and cat ears,” another commenter posted. “THAT IS A CAT AND I WONT BE GASLIGHTED LIKE THIS!!!
A fifth joked, “Is the little girl in the room cause I don’t see her.”
Created by Sanrio employee Yuko Shimizu in 1974, Hello Kitty first appeared on a children’s coin purse in 1975, and in the subsequent decades, the character has become a beloved character, globally known for her sweet and wholesome disposition. Not only that, but her creation has also generated Sanrio more than $80 billion to date.
Shimizu explained to BBC that the inspiration for the character came from her childhood. “When I was a child, I got a small white kitten from my father for a birthday present.”
According to the Los Angeles Times, the truth was unearthed by Hello Kitty scholar Christine R. Yano, who devoted her studies to the cultural phenomenon. While curating a Hello Kitty retrospective at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, she sent her notes to Sanrio for approval, and although the company was pleased with the Hello Kitty anthropologist’s work, they corrected one striking detail: that Hello Kitty was in fact a girl.
“I was corrected – very firmly,” Yano said at the time. “That’s one correction Sanrio made for my script for the show. Hello Kitty is not a cat. She’s a cartoon character. She is a little girl. She is a friend. But she is not a cat. She’s never depicted on all fours. She walks and sits like a two-legged creature.”
She was also privy to other little-known facts including the fact that her full name is Kitty White and she also so happens to be a Scorpio with a penchant for apple pie.
“She’s a perpetual third-grader,” Yano added. “She lives outside of London. I could go on. A lot of people don’t know the story and a lot don’t care. But it’s interesting because Hello Kitty emerged in the 1970s, when the Japanese and Japanese women were into Britain.”
