Hello Kitty History: The Story Behind the Famous Character.

Today, I got a package from Wild with a design that immediately took me back to something I had loved since I was a child: Hello Kitty. The case shows her holding a red apple, surrounded by the familiar apples and red bows that make the design so easy to recognise. Together with the case, I also received a Fresh Apple refill to match.

Like many girls of my generation, I grew up seeing Hello Kitty everywhere. To me, she had always simply been that cute little cartoon cat with the red bow. I never really thought much about the character behind the familiar face. I just knew Hello Kitty, and somehow I could still recognise her instantly decades later.

Seeing her again on the Wild case made me curious. Why is the red bow always part of her look? What is the connection with apples? And who exactly is Hello Kitty?

So today, I started looking into her story. I thought I would find a few simple facts about a familiar childhood character but I found much more than I expected.

Quick Answer: Is Hello Kitty Actually a Cat?

No. Although she looks like a cat, Sanrio describes Hello Kitty as a little girl named Kitty White. She was born in the suburbs of London and lives with her parents and her twin sister, Mimmy.

The funny part is that Hello Kitty even has a pet cat of her own, a white Persian called Charmmy Kitty.

Hello Kitty Was a Character Before She Was a Cartoon

For years, I had always associated Hello Kitty with cartoons, probably because that was one of the ways I knew her growing up. But when I started looking into her history, I found out that animation actually came much later.

Hello Kitty was created for Sanrio in 1974 by designer Yuko Shimizu, and her first appearance was surprisingly simple. In 1975, she appeared on a small vinyl coin purse sold in Japan, sitting between a bottle of milk and a goldfish bowl. There was no television series introducing her, no film and no complicated story behind her. She began as a little character printed on an everyday object, which feels quite fitting when you think about how we still encounter Hello Kitty today. She has spent decades appearing on things people actually use, from stationery and bags to clothes, beauty products and household items.

Hi Kitty

What surprised me even more was how much of a life Sanrio had already created around that simple face. Her name is Kitty White, and according to her official profile, she lives in the suburbs of London with her parents and her twin sister, Mimmy. Hello Kitty has a pet cat of her own. Her name is Charmmy Kitty, a white Persian cat given to her by her father. I had never known about Charmmy Kitty when I was younger, but finding out that the character I had always assumed was a cat actually owns a cat herself made the whole “Hello Kitty is not a cat” story even more amusing.

Hello Kitty likes baking cookies and making friends, while her favourite food is her mother’s apple pie.

Even her height and weight stay within this tiny imaginary world. Instead of centimetres and kilograms, Sanrio describes Hello Kitty as five apples tall and three apples heavy.

That detail made me look at the Wild case sitting in front of me again. Hello Kitty was holding an apple, the refill was Fresh Apple, and I had originally assumed it was simply a cute design chosen to match the scent. After reading about her mother’s apple pie and discovering that even Hello Kitty herself is officially measured in apples, the choice suddenly felt much less random.

Why Is Hello Kitty British?

Finding out that her name is actually Kitty White was already unexpected, but then came another question: why does one of Japan’s most famous characters live in the suburbs of London?

The answer goes back to Japan in the 1970s, when British culture was fashionable and anything associated with Britain had a certain appeal. Sanrio gave its new character a British background, which explains why Kitty White lives near London rather than somewhere in Japan.

Her English name came from the same period. Before settling on “Hello Kitty,” the designers reportedly considered calling her “Hi Kitty.” It is such a small difference, but I am glad they went with Hello Kitty. After hearing the name for most of my life, “Hi Kitty” somehow sounds completely wrong.

I find it quite funny that a character I always thought of as unmistakably Japanese was, from the beginning, imagined as a little British girl. Perhaps that mixture was already a hint of what Hello Kitty would eventually become: a character created in Japan, given a home in England, and recognised almost everywhere else.

The Designers Behind Hello Kitty

Another thing I had never thought about was who actually decides what Hello Kitty looks like. With so many versions of her appearing over the years, I assumed there must have been a long list of designers behind them. Apparently, there hasn’t been.

Yuko Shimizu created the original Hello Kitty in 1974, but she did not stay with Sanrio for very long. After she left, Setsuko Yonekubo took over the design in 1976. Then, in 1980, Yuko Yamaguchi became the main designer behind Hello Kitty, a role she has continued for decades.

For me, that surprisingly interesting. For a character that has appeared in so many different forms for more than 50 years, from the little vinyl coin purse of the 1970s to fashion, beauty products and countless collaborations, there have been remarkably few people shaping her look.

Yamaguchi has said that she looks at fashion, films and other parts of popular culture for inspiration, which probably explains how Hello Kitty has managed to change with the times without becoming unrecognisable. Her clothes can change, the colours and patterns around her can change, and she can appear on something completely different from one decade to the next, but that little face still looks like the Hello Kitty I remember from childhood.

Now she has somehow made her way onto a deodorant case sitting in my bathroom. It is a long way from that first coin purse, but strangely, she does not look out of place there either.

Why Doesn’t Hello Kitty Have a Mouth?

There was one more thing I had seen hundreds of times without ever really thinking about it: Hello Kitty does not seem to have a mouth.

Once I noticed it properly, I wondered how I had managed to ignore something so obvious for so many years. She has her black eyes, three whiskers on each side and that tiny yellow nose, but no smile, no frown and no expression telling us how she feels.

It turns out that this simplicity is intentional. Sanrio has explained that without a fixed expression, people can see their own feelings in Hello Kitty. When you are happy, she can seem happy with you. When you are having a bad day, the very same face can quietly fit that mood too. Sanrio has also described her as speaking “from the heart”, which allows her to communicate without being tied to one language.

Then I found another explanation from Yuko Yamaguchi that made the whole thing even more amusing. According to Hello Kitty’s longtime designer, Kitty technically does have a mouth. We simply cannot see it because it is hidden in her fur.

I am not sure I will ever look at her face in quite the same way again.

But visible mouth or hidden mouth, I can understand why the design has worked for so long. If Hello Kitty had been given a big permanent smile in the 1970s, perhaps she would always be telling us how we were supposed to see her. Instead, that simple face leaves the expression to us. Maybe that is why the same Hello Kitty I liked as a child can still look perfectly at home on something sitting on my shelf decades later.

Her Red Bow Is More Than Just an Accessory

I also noticing another detail I had never really questioned as a child: her red bow. I had always thought of it simply as part of her look. Hello Kitty has a red bow because, well, that is Hello Kitty. But the position of the bow actually helps tell us which twin we are looking at. Kitty normally wears hers on her left ear, while her twin sister, Mimmy, wears a yellow bow on her right.

It is a tiny difference between two characters who otherwise look remarkably similar, and somehow I had gone for years without knowing it.

That also made me look more closely at how little Hello Kitty actually needs to be recognisable. There is the white face, two black eyes, three whiskers on each side, a small yellow nose and that red bow. Nothing about the design is particularly complicated, yet take one look at those few details together and there is almost no mistaking who it is.

Now that I know what the bow is doing there, I suspect I will automatically check which side it is on whenever I see Hello Kitty or Mimmy again.

Hello Kitty and UNICEF

Of everything I found while reading about Hello Kitty, her connection with UNICEF was probably the part I expected least.

Growing up, I knew her from the cute things I liked: stationery, little accessories and all those familiar products covered with her face. I certainly never thought about Hello Kitty being connected to an international organisation such as UNICEF.

But that relationship goes back decades. Hello Kitty has been involved in UNICEF activities supporting children, and during her 30th anniversary in 2004, activities connected with the celebration supported girls’ education programmes. According to UNICEF’s Annual Report for that year, they raised US$150,000.

That was quite a different side of Hello Kitty from the one I remembered from childhood. I have to admit, that discovery made me a little pleased about my childhood choice. Apparently, there was more behind the little face on my stationery than I ever knew at the time.

Then I Looked at My Wild Case Again

After going down this unexpected Hello Kitty rabbit hole, I looked at the Wild case sitting in front of me again. It was, after all, the reason I had started searching for any of this in the first place.

Wild had sent me the Hello Kitty case together with a Fresh Apple antiperspirant refill, and when I first opened the package, I simply thought the apple theme matched the scent. Now I noticed the connection differently. Hello Kitty loves her mother’s apple pie, her height and weight are officially measured in apples, and here she was again, surrounded by little red apples while holding one in her hand.

Maybe the Fresh Apple pairing was not as random as I had first assumed.

The rest of the design suddenly became more interesting too. The white coloured case is covered with Hello Kitty, red apples and those bows I now know to look for, while a strong red section breaks up the softer background. There is something slightly retro about it, which seems appropriate for a character that first appeared on an everyday object back in 1975.

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The pattern continues around the case, so there is not really a plain side to turn towards the wall. I normally think of deodorant packaging as something practical rather than something worth looking at, but this one is different. It is the kind of case I would happily leave sitting out on the bathroom shelf instead of putting it away in a cupboard.

What the Fresh Apple Roll-On Is Like to Use

The Fresh Apple refill is quite different from the Wild deodorant sticks I have used before. This one is a liquid roll-on antiperspirant, and Wild describes the formula as providing up to 72 hours of sweat protection and being made with 90% ingredients of natural origin.

What I noticed first when using it was how quickly it dried. I sometimes associate roll-ons with having to wait before getting dressed because they can stay wet or sticky for a while, but I did not have that problem with this one. It spreads easily, dries quickly on my skin and, so far, I have not noticed those annoying white marks on my clothes either.

The Fresh Apple scent was another pleasant surprise because I had expected something much sweeter. To me, it smells more like biting into a cold green apple than an apple-scented candle. It is fresh and light rather than syrupy, and after a while the fragrance settles down instead of following me around all day.

I actually prefer that because I like being able to put perfume on afterwards without feeling as though my deodorant and perfume are competing with each other.

I Can Keep Using the Hello Kitty Case

One thing I like about this particular collaboration is that the Hello Kitty design is on the reusable case rather than something I have to throw away when the refill is empty. Once I finish the Fresh Apple refill, I can simply put another compatible Wild roll-on refill inside it.

That matters a little more with a design like this. I would not be particularly attached to an ordinary deodorant container, but this one reminds me of a character I have liked since childhood, so I would rather keep it.

Limited-edition designs eventually come and go, and Fresh Apple may not always be the scent I want to use. The case does not depend on either of those things. I can change the refill and still have Hello Kitty sitting on my bathroom shelf.

Considering that the whole reason I started researching her was because of this little case, I think she has earned her place there.

More Than 50 Years Later

When I was a child, I liked Hello Kitty without ever wondering where she came from or why she looked the way she did. She was simply one of those familiar characters that seemed to be everywhere.

Decades later, it was quite unexpected that a Wild deodorant case would make me curious about her again.

Perhaps that is what I like most about this little coincidence. Something that reminded me of my childhood ended up giving me a reason to look at it again as an adult, this time with a completely different kind of curiosity.

The Hello Kitty on my bathroom shelf is still the same familiar face I would have recognised immediately as a little girl. I am the one looking at her differently now.

Disclosure: Wild sent me the Hello Kitty case and Fresh Apple refill featured in this article. The historical Hello Kitty research and opinions in this article are my own.

Work with Twinkle So Bright: If you have a product, design or collaboration that fits naturally with the subject of this article, you can view my collaboration options on the Twinkle So Bright Collaborate page.

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