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HELLO KITTY: THE CHARACTER THE WHOLE WORLD KNOWS

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In 1974, a 24-year-old Japanese illustrator named Yuko Shimizu founded Hello Kitty, which she published under the Japanese company Sanrio. Her creation has helped Sanrio generate more than $80 billion to date.


How and why she created it?

In 1974, Yuko Shimizu started working at a company called Sanrio, which specialized in rubber sandals decorated with strawberry prints. To create another best-seller, the company began hiring young illustrators to come up with a new winning design. Yuko and the other illustrators had a simple brief, revolving around the word 'kawaii', meaning cute. It only took a few days to complete the design. This design was a cartoon character, a cat-like girl with a round face, black eyes, a yellow nose, no mouth, and a red bow over her left ear. Yuko asked her assistant to give her a seal of approval. Yuko says "I had a young female assistant and I showed her both the front and side profiles, and when I asked which one was cuter, she said the side profile was the cutest." In the beginning, the design was released on small bags with six characters. However, the Hello Kitty design sold far better than the others and quickly became Sanrio's fastest-selling product.

Hello Kitty has starred in several television series, beginning with the American animated program Hello Kitty's Furry Tale Theater in 1987, and has also appeared in books and video games. Sanrio has established the theme parks Puroland and Harmonyland in Japan; both feature licensed characters, the most prominent of which is Hello Kitty. Hello Kitty was appointed Japan's official tourism ambassador to China in 2008.


Is Hello Kitty a cat?

The inspiration for Hello Kitty came from Yuko's childhood. "When I was a kid, I got a little white kitten as a birthday present from my dad," she said. However, more recently, Sanrio has provided a detailed backstory for Hello Kitty. Although everyone knows her as Hello Kitty, her real name is Kitty White. Sanrio maintains that Hello Kitty is a girl and not a cat, despite having cat features. According to the biography created by Sanrio, Hello Kitty was born in London, where she lived with her parents and twin sister Mimmy. Her hobbies include baking cookies, playing the piano, and above all making friends. Hello Kitty's simple, wholesome world of primary colors appealed to young children.


What does Hello Kitty symbolize?

Sanrio said they see Hello Kitty as a symbol of friendship between people around the world and hope this friendship will grow stronger. But if we want to say what her physical features represent: Sanrio has said that Hello Kitty has no mouth, as they want people to "project their feelings onto the character" and "be happy or sad together with Hello Kitty." Another explanation Sanrio has given for Hello Kitty's lack of a mouth is that she speaks from the heart. And her red bow stands for cuteness.


What happened to the designer of Hello Kitty?

Yuko left Sanrio just two years after creating Hello Kitty, at the age of 27, to have a family. She continued working as a freelance illustrator. She most recently created the character, Rebecca Bonbon, who is described as being 'the most stylish Bulldog on the planet.'




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