Hello Kitty isn’t a cat, creators say — despite whiskers, ears and name

The cat is out of the bag.

On Hello Kitty’s 50th anniversary, fans were shocked to learn that their beloved feline-inspired character isn’t actually a cat at all.

“Hello Kitty is not a cat,” Jill Cook, The retail business development manager at Sanrio, creators of the popular anime, said, today“She’s actually a little girl.”

In fact, she’s a little girl – “three apples in weight” and five apples in height – growing up in the suburbs of London with her twin sister Mimi, her parents and even her pet cat.

But fans of the widely popular character are not convinced by this fact, while some were shocked by the fact that Hello Kitty resides in the UK.

“Does she have cat ears and a mustache?” one annoyed user wrote on Tik Tok.

“If she has cat ears and cat whiskers, she’s probably just a little girl,” another joked.

“So she has a mustache and ears and is called Kitty, but she is actually human? What?” one viewer commented in astonishment.

“Is she British?!” said another.

According to anthropologist and author Christine R. Yano, “Japanese people and Japanese women were interested in Britain” at the time of Hello Kitty’s conception, she previously told Los Angeles Times.

“They loved the idea of ​​Britain. It represented the ideal childhood, like a white picket fence. So the biography was created specifically to suit the tastes of the time,” she explained, adding that Hello Kitty is actually “a little girl.”

In 2014, to mark the cartoon’s 40th anniversary, Sanrio corrected Yano “very strictly” when distinguishing between Hello Kitty’s identity as a little girl and her feline features.

“She is a friend, but she is not a cat,” Yano said. “She is not depicted as a cat walking on all fours. She walks and sits like a two-legged creature. However, she does have her own pet cat, named Charmy Kitty.”

Half a century after Hello Kitty was created, launched in 1974, a host of celebrations have sprung up across the country to mark this year, from Pop-up shop at Nordstrom flagship store in New York City For Van Leeuwen’s exclusive ice cream flavour, Delicious white raspberry chocolate ice creamavailable for one day only on National Ice Cream Day, which is July 21st.

“An ambassador of friendship and kindness for the past 50 years, Hello Kitty has touched so many people around the world, and we want to share our appreciation with her fans by offering unforgettable Hello Kitty-inspired experiences — both in real life and digitally — all year long,” Craig Takiguchi, chief operating officer of Sanrio, which is planning a series of celebratory events this year, said in a statement provided to The Washington Post.