For our entire time knowing the Sanrio character, Hello Kitty, we were led to believe that she is a cat, primarily because, well, she looks like one.
Despite the fact that Hello Kitty does dress up and enjoy accessories, like huge bows and headbands, we had always thought that she was just a feline that loves the finer things in life.
However, the creators of Hello Kitty, Sanrio, revealed shocking news this week that their character is actually a British school girl named Kitty White who lives just outside of London, although it hasn't been revealed where, according to BBC News.
The news was ever so surprising when it was revealed first to Christine R. Yano, an anthropologist from the University of Hawaii who is curating an exhibition about the cartoon character.
"That's one correction Sanrio made for my script for the show. Hello Kitty is not a cat," Yano told the L.A. Times.
"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."
I know. This blows all of our minds.
Hello Kitty was chosen to be British to fit the demographic that fell in love with the character.
"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," explained Yano.
