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.”
