Hello Kitty creators reveal their beloved character is not a cat, much to fans’ shock

Hello Kitty creators reveal 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. During an appearance on the Today’s showJill Koch, Sanrio’s director of business development, 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 mommy, a daddy and a twin sister, Minnie, who is also her best friend. She loves 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.

This revelation sparked a myriad of emotions among fans, ranging from denial to shock to confusion.

“Hello Kitty is a cat to me,” one user said. written on X, formerly known as Twitter. Meanwhile, another added:”She’s a pussy and nothing will ever change my mind.”

Someone else commented: “This is a full cat with whiskers and fur besides.”

“I have never seen a human with real whiskers and cat ears,” another commenter posted. “THIS IS A CAT AND I WILL NOT LET MYSELF BE WASTED LIKE THIS!!!”

A fifth joked: “That’s 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 purse in 1975. Over the next few decades, the character has become a beloved character, known worldwide for her sweet and wholesome nature. Additionally, her creation has also generated over $80 billion for Sanrio to date.

Shimizu explained to BBC that the inspiration for the character came from his childhood. “When I was little, my father gave me a little white kitten for my birthday.”

According to Los Angeles TimesThe truth was revealed by Christine R. Yano, a Hello Kitty scholar who has dedicated her studies to this cultural phenomenon. While organizing a retrospective on Hello Kitty 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 work of the Hello Kitty anthropologist, it corrected one glaring detail: Hello Kitty was actually a girl.

“I was corrected, very firmly,” Yano said at the time. “That’s one of the corrections that Sanrio made to my script for the series. Hello Kitty is not a cat. She’s a cartoon character. She’s a little 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 aware of other little-known facts, including that her full name is Kitty White and that she also happens to be a Scorpio with a penchant for apple pie.

“She’s in the third grade,” Yano added. “She lives outside London. 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 out in the 1970s, when Japanese people were really into Japanese people in Britain.”