Hello Kitty is ‘not a cat,’ but rather a ‘little girl,’ creators say
The company that created Hello Kitty unveiled a revelation during the iconic character’s 50th anniversary, subsequently leaving some fans confused and in denial.
Hello Kitty was created in 1974 by Sanrio, a Japanese entertainment company. Jill Koch, the senior vice president of marketing and brand management at Sanrio, appeared on Today on Thursday and said, “Hello Kitty is not a cat,” and “she’s actually a little girl.”
Koch then told the TV show that Hello Kitty, who “weighs three apples” and is five apples tall, grew up in the London suburbs with her twin sister, Mimmy, their parents and the family’s pet cat named Charmmy Kitty.
Hello Kitty’s hobbies include “baking cookies and making new friends,” according to Sanrio’s website.
USA TODAY contacted Sanrio on Friday but has not received a response.
Here’s some background on Hello Kitty and reactions from fans who are not too keen on the idea of the character being a little girl.
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Who is Hello Kitty?
Yuko Shimizu, the Sanrio employee who created Hello Kitty, told BBC that her design for the character was “a white cat with a red bow in its hair.” She added how the inspiration behind the character came from her childhood.
“When I was a child, I got a small white kitten from my father for a birthday present,” Shimizu said, per the British outlet.
Sanrio told the BBC that Hello Kitty’s real name is Kitty White, and she was born in England. The company then confirmed that the character was indeed an 8-year-old girl.
Shimizu would leave Sanrio at age 27, two years after creating Hello Kitty, she said, per BBC.
‘Hello Kitty is a cat in my eyes’
Fans of Hello Kitty have voiced their concerns about the recent news, with many not accepting Koch’s explanation.
An X user named Carmen shared a post on Friday saying, “Hello Kitty is a cat in my eyes.”
Another X user, named atta (furnal equinox), questioned Hello Kitty’s London upbringing, saying, “Isn’t Hello Kitty Japanese?”
Emily Lazar posted on X how she needed “answers” and questioned whether Hello Kitty has been “Larping this whole time?” Larping is when “participants portray characters in an imaginary environment and interact with one another in real-time,” according to the FBI.
In a follow-up X post, Lazar replies to another user who said Hello Kitty is “a girl cat and nothing will ever change my mind.” In response, Lazar said, “Yeah for my own sanity and childhood I’m sticking to that lol.”
Dazeinthegarden posted on X that, “Hello Kitty is absolutely a cat, with a pet cat. The same way Mickey has Pluto & Goofy still exists in the same universe.”
