In other words, I think the majority of people thought the kitten was a cat.
But no! This beloved cartoon character turns 50 this year (officially turning 50 on November 1st) and is definitely not an animal, but a girl from the Homo genus.
Today, July 18th, Jill KochThe senior vice president of marketing and brand management at Sanrio, the company behind Hello Kitty, explained it in six words that immediately threw us off: “Hello Kitty is not a cat.”
But as if that wasn’t enough, she went on to share more details about the character we thought we knew so well: “She’s actually a little girl who was born and raised outside of London. She’s got a mum and a dad and a twin sister, Mimmy, who’s also her best friend.”
Her full name is also Kitty White. What?
But as you probably know, this isn’t the first time that Hello Kitty has made the news: in fact, the character made headlines in 2014 around the time of its 40th anniversary for the exact same reason.
At that time, anthropologists Christine R. Yano-author Pink Globalization: Hello Kitty’s Trans-Pacific Journey—While preparing for the Hello Kitty exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, I was “flatly” corrected by Sanrino about the distinction between cat and girl.
“She’s a manga character,” Yano explained. Los Angeles Times“She’s a little girl. A friend. But she’s not a cat. She’s never depicted on all fours. She walks and sits like a two-legged creature. But she has her own pet cat, called Charmy Kitty.”
Speaking of the character’s London roots, Yano explained: “Hello Kitty emerged in the 1970s, at a time when Japanese people and Japanese women were obsessed with England. They loved the idea of England. It represented the quintessential ideal childhood, like a white picket fence. So this biography was really tailored to the tastes of that era.”
Japanese company Sanrio first created Hello Kitty in 1974. A year later, her image, including her distinctive red bow, was released to the public on small children’s coin purses that sold for less than a dollar.
Since then, her adorable, expressionless face has appeared on toys, clothing and other products around the world, and her universal appeal has even been the subject of a doctoral dissertation.