Hello Kitty Celebrates Its 50th Anniversary, But Did You Know She’s Not a Cat?

I mean, I think the people who thought that kitty was a cat are in the majority.

But nope! The beloved cartoon character, now celebrating its 50th anniversary—which officially occurs on November 1—is most definitely not an animal at all, but rather a little girl of the Homo genus.

Today, on July 18, Jill Koch, the Senior Vice President of Marketing and Brand Management at Sanrio, Hello Kitty’s flagship company, explained in six words that quickly left us unsettled, “Hello Kitty is not a cat.”

It wasn’t enough, however, as she continued to divulge more about the character we thought we knew so well: “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.”

Her full name is also Kitty White. Like, what?!

But maybe you did know, because this wasn’t the first time Hello Kitty had this news circulating around. 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.”

As for the character’s London roots, Yano explained: “Hello Kitty emerged in the 1970s, when the Japanese and Japanese women were into Britain. 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.”

The Japanese company Sanrio first created Hello Kitty in 1974. A year later, her image, including her signature red bow, was introduced to the public on a small children’s coin purse that sold for less than a dollar.

Since then, her adorable expressionless face has popped up on toys, clothing and other merchandise around the globe, with its universal appeal being the subject of doctoral dissertations.