[Hello Kitty. Photo Credit to Pixabay]

On the 19th of this month, the creators of Hello Kitty made a surprising announcement: despite the character’s name and cat-like appearance with a cat’s whiskers and ears, Hello Kitty is actually not a cat.

Jill Koch, the senior vice president of marketing and brand management at Sanrio, stated“Hello Kitty is not a cat, she’s actually a little girl.”

He further explained, “She’s actually a little girl, born and raised in the suburbs of London.”

This remark had shocked lots of Hello Kitty fans who were just discovering the true identity of their beloved character.

Not only was Hello Kitty’s newly revealed identity, but the fact that she is from London had also caught the fans off guard.

Regarding Hello Kitty’s London upbringing, one of the X users had questioned Hello Kitty’s nationality by inquiring, “Isn’t Hello Kitty Japanese?”

Another X user even mentioned that “Hello Kitty is a girl cat and nothing will ever change my mind” and added that “Yeah for my own sanity and childhood I’m sticking to that lol.”

Specifically, Hello Kitty was originally known as “White Kitten Without a Name” rather than “Hello Kitty”.

However, at that time, Britain was a trend in Japan. And this trend has become the reason why Hello Kitty has been selected to become British.

This feline character is depicted as living in a big pink house, enjoying baking cookies and making friends, and having a boyfriend named Dear Daniel and a pet cat called Charmmy Kitty.

According to Koch, Hello Kitty weighs three apples and is five apples tall.

Also, she grew up and lived in the suburbs of London with her parents, twin sister named Mimmy, and the cat Charmmy Kitty.

Moreover, Hello Kitty can walk and sit like a two-legged creature as she is a human, not a cat.

In fact, Yuko Shimizu, the Sanrio employee who created the character Hello Kitty, told in the BBC interview that her design of the character was “a white cat with a red bow in its hair” and got an inspiration from a character from her childhood when her dad gifted her a small white kitten.

Shimizu created Hello Kitty, hoping that the character would hear her out, which is the reason why Hello Kitty does not have a mouth.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the character Hello Kitty, which was launched in 1974.

For the 50th anniversary, Hello Kitty festivities are being held around the globe to celebrate its 50th year.

Over the last 50 years, Hello Kitty has been a very successful character.

Specifically, she was once a tourism ambassador in Japan and a Unicef children’s ambassador, and there also had been thousands of branded products, films, and theme parks around the globe.

When the real identity and nationality of Hello Kitty were first announced in 2014, the official account of “Peanuts” provided joy to the public by posting that “We can confirm, Snoopy IS a dog.”