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Total Bombshell! Hello Kitty Expert Reveals Iconic Character Isn't a Cat

"She's a cartoon character. She is a little girl. She is a friend. But she is not a cat," University of Hawaii anthropologist Christine R. Yano told the LA Times.

Remember this day, you guys. This is the day we learned that everything we know and hold true in this world is a LIE.

University of Hawaii anthropologist Christine R. Yano, who has been studying the phenomenon that is Hello Kitty for years, has just dropped some bombshells about the iconic character that has been around since 1974. That's right, Hello Kitty, created by the Japanese company Sanrio, is 40 years old and between you and us, it looks she's had some work done. Those ears are totally not natural.

But back to these bombshells. In honor of the big Hello Kitty exhibit coming to the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles followed by the first ever Hello Kitty Con at the LA Museum of Contemporary Art, Yano has revealed some little known facts about the character.

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The biggest thing is of course the fact that....wait for it...

Hello Kitty isn't even a cat!

That's right. For the past 40 years, she's been living a lie.

"That's one correction Sanrio made for my script for the show. Hello Kitty is not a cat," Yano told the LA 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."

Sanrio confirms the recent news with the following comment: 

"Hello Kitty is not a cat, she's a girl."
 
In fact, take a look at her official bio below:
 
"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."

Our lives will never be the same.

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Are you sitting down? Well, you're probably on the floor curled up in a ball because everything you know has just been turned upside down, but prepare yourself anyway. There is one other thing you need to know about Hello Kitty:

She's British. She was born in London! And she still lives there!

Apparently there is a whole list of facts about her that we didn't know, like the fact that she has a twin sister and she is a Scorpio. You can read all about her at the official Hello Kitty fan website if you want to really get to know her since apparently we never really knew her at all!

So Hello Kitty's existence?

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