Hello Kitty Is Not a Cat and We're Not OK

Goodbye, Kitty. 

Amid celebrations for Hello Kitty’s 50th anniversary—which officially occurs November 1—fans of the popular cartoon character created by Yuko Shimizu were shocked to learn that she is not as feline as she appears. 

“Hello Kitty is not a cat,” Jill Cook, the Director of Retail Business Development at Sanrio, Hello Kitty’s flagship company, explained on Today July 18. “She’s actually a little girl born and raised in the suburbs of London. She has a mom and dad and a twin sister Mimmy—who is also her best friend.”

Naturally, the revelation, while not entirely unknown, had some fans a bit, er, confused. After all, Hello Kitty appears to be a cat with a little red bow and, for some reason, no mouth.

“So she has whiskers, ears, and is named ‘Kitty’ but is actually a human?” One fan reacted to the Today clip on TikTok. “What?”

Others felt like the fun fact completely changed their lives. 

“Hello Kitty has been my favorite since childhood,” another fan wrote. “I’m almost 40 and this is the first time I’m hearing this.”

While it may be news for some, this isn’t the first time Hello Kitty’s species has stirred controversy. In fact, the character made headlines back in 2014, around its 40th anniversary, for the exact same reason.

During that time, anthropologist Christine R. Yano—who authored Pink Globalization: Hello Kitty’s Trek Across The Pacific—was corrected “very firmly” by Sanrino on the distinction between cat and little girl amid prepping for a Hello Kitty exhibit at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art. 

“She’s a cartoon character,” Yano explained to the Los Angeles Times. “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 does have a pet cat of her own, however, and it’s called Charmmy Kitty.”

Meanwhile, other fans were just as surprised to hear where Hello Kitty lives. Hello Kitty—whose first ever appearance was on a Japanese coin purse in 1974—was very intentionally made British, raised in the suburbs of London. 

“Hello Kitty emerged in the 1970s, when the Japanese and Japanese women were into Britain,” Yano added to the Los Angeles Times. “They loved the idea of Britain. It represented the quintessential idealized childhood, almost like a white picket fence. So, the biography was created exactly for the tastes of that time.”

But while fans continue to learn this very shocking fact about Hello Kitty, one aspect that won’t surprise anyone is that she was created to be universally adored. 

“Her core message is friendship, kindness, and inclusivity,” Cook expressed on Today. “Part of what has helped her transcend borders, languages, cultures is that that’s understandable to everyone.”