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Hello Kitty creators reveal that the beloved character is not a cat.
On July 18, Sanrio, the Japanese entertainment company that created Hello Kitty, made a surprising revelation to mark the iconic character's 50th anniversary. In an appearance on the show Today is the showSanrio's retail business development director Jill Koch said: “Hello Kitty is not a cat.”
“She’s actually a little girl who was born and raised in the suburbs of London,” Koch added. “She has a mom, a dad and a twin sister, Minnie, who is also her best friend. She likes to bake cookies and make new friends.”
“[Hello Kitty] “She 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 slew of emotions among fans, from denial to shock and, later, confusion.
“Hello Kitty is a cat to me,” said one user wrote on X, formerly known as TwitterMeanwhile, another aggregate:“She's a cat and nothing will ever change my mind.”
Someone else commented: “That's a full cat, with whiskers and fur, by the way.”
“I have never seen a human being with whiskers and actual cat ears,” wrote another commenter. “IT’S A CAT AND I AM NOT GOING TO BE FOOLED BY THIS KIND OF GASLIGHTING!!!
A fifth joked: “Is that the little girl in the room because I can'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 decades since, the character has become a beloved character, known around the world for her sweet and wholesome nature. Not only that, but her creation has also earned Sanrio over $80 billion to date.
Shimizu explained to BBC that the inspiration for the character came from her childhood. “When I was a little girl, my father gave me a white kitten as a birthday present.”
According to the Los Angeles TimesThe truth was uncovered by Hello Kitty scholar Christine R. Yano, who devoted her studies to the cultural phenomenon. While organizing a Hello Kitty retrospective at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, she sent her notes to Sanrio for approval, and while the company was satisfied with the Hello Kitty anthropologist's work, they corrected one surprising detail: that Hello Kitty was, in fact, a girl.
“I was corrected, very firmly,” Yano said at the time. “That’s a correction that Sanrio made to my script for the show. Hello Kitty is not a cat. She’s a cartoon character. She’s a girl. She’s a friend. But she’s 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 that she is also a Scorpio with a penchant for apple pie.
“She’s a third-grader who lives outside London,” Yano added. “I could go on. A lot of people don’t know the story and a lot of people don’t care. But it’s interesting because Hello Kitty came about in the 1970s, when Japanese men and women were very interested in Britain.”
