Hello Kitty is NOT a cat!

It is TRUE! Saturday Night Live (SNL) tonight with Keke Palmer really got me thinking. They had a skit that said Hello Kitty is supposed to be a 3rd-grade girl born in 1978 who dates a boy cat, but she herself is a raceless human haha. Turns out… based on truth!

Hello Kitty’s real backstory was created in the 1974 which was when Japanese women romanticized living in England, thus she lives outside of London.

“Hello Kitty is not a cat. She’s a cartoon character. 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.”
Sanrio

Hello Kitty is worth $84.5 billion! That’s a purrrritty penny. haha The 2nd most valuable media company franchise in the world. I know now you want to know #1… it’s Pokemon at $105 billion. Ok, back to the kitty.

Check out this skit for yourself!

Hello Kitty isn’t human though as much as she is more of a personification or anthropomorphization though like Disney’s Mickey Mouse. In my opinion when you look back at right before the 40th anniversary of Sanrio’s Hello Kitty they had a big to-do when Hello Kitty’s designer Yuko Yamaguchi said Hello Kitty was mouthless… NO MOUTH! Gasp, so much press, but why? “so that people who look at her can project their own feelings onto her face, because she has an expressionless face. Kitty looks happy when people are happy. She looks sad when they are sad. For this psychological reason, we thought she shouldn’t be tied to any emotion – and that’s why she doesn’t have a mouth.”

However, Sanrio gave an official response after that “We never said Hello Kitty doesn’t have a mouth. It’s just not drawn.”

I clipped this from the character bio on the Sanrio website. See how they word it just right?

This is a photo of a major fan, but no, not the real human Hello Kitty after 48 years, if that’s what you thought.

Now Hello Kitty is 48 and soon 50, so I think if they keep this debate up for a bit it should lead into their 50th anniversary and keep their money and promotion flowing.

“As tall as five apples, and as heavy as three, Hello Kitty is a bright little girl with a heart of gold. She loves to bake cookies and play the piano, and dreams of one day becoming a pianist or maybe even a poet. She has a gift for music and English, and a soft spot for Mama’s apple pie. Hello Kitty and her twin sister Mimmy are the best of friends.”
SANRIO

“I was corrected — very firmly. That’s one correction Sanrio made for my script for the show. Hello Kitty is not a cat. She’s a cartoon character. 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.”
Christine Yano