What looks like an absurdly cute cat but has no mouth and is not technically a feline? Well, chances are, the first part helped you arrive at the answer. Frankly, it’s mystifying about the missing mouth. But as for the rest, that just puts it all over the top even more. Of course, it’s Hello Kitty, who turns 50 this year.
Hello Kitty Is a Little Girl From London
Fans of the cute Japanese Kawaii character from 1974 won’t be surprised to learn that Hello Kitty has actually been identified as a little girl, but, of course, it surprises newcomers. Technically, she’s not Hello Kitty either since her full name is Kitty White, and she has a shy, mouthless twin sister, Mimmy White or ‘Hello Mimmy.’
The twins’ parents are George and Mary White, and their grandparents are Margaret and Anthony White.
While they are identical, Mimmy usually wears a yellow bow and often orange overalls instead of blue. But they have been known to wear each other’s clothes too. The White family is from the London suburbs in a distinctly human house.
Wait, She’s a Japanese Bobtail Cat?
According to the Hello Kitty Wiki, she is portrayed as “a female anthropomorphic white Japanese Bobtail cat.” Or is she a girl who likes to dress as a cat…with no mouth?
Image of Blue-eyed Female Japanese Bobtail Cat via Wikipedia
What gives? Her creators at Sanrio (Saint River) have depicted her as a cartoon kindergarten to a third-grade-age girl born in London on November 1st. But that story has evolved, as you’ll see.
Hello Kitty Loves Them Apples
Hello Kitty’s favorite food is apple pie from Momma, which seems like a favorable nod to her American audience. Standing about the height of five apples, she would be about 1.3 feet tall, not much taller than your average house cat. Yet her weight is only about three apples.
It’s our best advice not to think too much about how she eats pie or talks with no mouth. Or why she’s an almost cat-sized third grader with a slightly smaller cat of her own named Charmmy Kitty.
Image via Facebook/Hello Kitty with Chris Tam
The Cute Reasons She Has No Mouth
Ah, the age-old mystery of a girl who’s not a cat with no mouth. Well, the answer to the mystery is cute, like Kitty White.
“A spokesperson from Sanrio says that Hello Kitty is not normally given a mouth because ‘without the mouth, it is easier for the person looking at Hello Kitty to project their feelings onto the character’ and that ‘the person can be happy or sad together with Hello Kitty,’” the Wiki states. Another answer is that Kitty White speaks with her heart. Sanrio nobly aims to create a peaceful culture of friendship and goodwill. We might well consider how much better off the world would be if more of us had no mouth. Now, that would be sweet!
The Boyfriend Looks Like a Cat Too
It’s also amusing that Hello Kitty’s boyfriend since 1999, Dear Daniel, also looks exactly like a mouthless cat. Perhaps, he’s the Ken to her Barbie?
Video by Hello Kitty Online:
A Shocking Revelation About Hello Kitty!
In 2014, a University of Hawaii anthropology professor, Christine Yano, humorously shocked the world when she got a rude awakening that Hello Kitty is a human girl. Yano, an author about Hello Kitty culture, was curating an exhibit at the Japanese-American National Museum in Los Angeles at the time.
After Sanrio reviewed her script about the exhibit, they corrected it, saying she’s a “British friend” and a perpetual third-grader with a twin.
“‘I was corrected—very firmly,’ she said. “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.” In response, Peanuts confirmed that Snoopy is, in fact, a dog.
We can confirm, Snoopy IS a dog. 🐶
— PEANUTS (@Snoopy) August 27, 2014
Before all the news hit, the Sanrio company had previously maintained guidelines that Hello Kitty wasn’t technically a cat. Yet following the sudden interest, they clarified their guidelines as follows:
“Hello Kitty was done in the motif of a cat. It’s going too far to say that Hello Kitty is not a cat. Hello Kitty is a personification of a cat,” said a spokesperson at Sanrio’s Tokyo headquarters.
The Japanese Context For Calling a Cat a ‘Girl’ or ‘Boy’
Interestingly, Japanese culture reportedly refers to cats’ and dogs’ genders a little differently in the most charming way.
“The character’s official profile never says she is human, and among cat lovers in Japan, it’s very common for cats to be referred to as “girl” or “boy,” instead of by the Japanese gender markers designated for animals (namely, “osu” or 雄 for “male” animals and “mesu” or 雌 for female animals). The reason for this is that by using terms like “girl” or “boy” for animals, they can personify them through vocabulary and raise them above the status of mere “pet” to a member of the family,” shared Kotaku.com.
So, in the end, we conclude this kitty is an anthropomorphic feline after all, a girl but not a human child. That would be silly. She lives in a world of imagination that people have loved for half a century and might for as long as there are real-life cats or people around to see her.
Video by KHON2 News:
Hello to The 50th Anniversary Tour
As we observe the 50th anniversary of Hello Kitty, her popularity and merchandise continue to soar. Since 2015, she has toured North America, a journey that even the pandemic couldn’t halt, with a special appearance in San Francisco.
The Hello Kitty Cafe Truck is traveling the States with special 50th-anniversary items. She was the 57th Annual Grand Parade Marshal for The Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival in April 2024. After she drove by, a group of Japanese Akita dogs followed in her path.
Video by NBC Bay Area about the Cherry Blossom Parade:
