Hello kitty stories

Hello Kitty (ハローキティ Harō Kiti) (full name Kitty White (キティ・ホワイト Kiti howaito) is a fictional character produced by the Japanese company Sanrio, first designed by Yuko Shimizu. She is portrayed as a female white Japanese bobtail cat with a red bow. 

The character's first appearance on an item, a vinyl coin purse, was introduced in Japan in 1974 and brought to the United States in 1976. The character is a staple of the kawaii segment of Japanese popular culture. Hello Kitty first came into being in the 70′s when a then new company called Sanrio needed to come up with a merchandise mascot that would appeal to the preteen girl demographic.They commissioned an artist to work on the project and she came up with a drawing of a white Japanese Bobtail catthat had a red bow in it’s hair and was wearing blue overalls. You can see the original Hello Kitty concept on the coin purse in the picture above, which was the first Hello Kitty product ever.

A whole back story for Hello Kitty was created, which is basically this:

Hello Kitty is actually a nickname for Kitty White, who is not Japanese but actually British and lives in London with her family. She has a twin sister named Mimmy. The only way you can tell the two apart is by their bows, Hello Kitty wears a red bow and Mimmy wears a yellow one. She is in the third grade but when school’s out she travels the world making new friends. She is bright, kind-hearted, and loves the outdoors. Favorite food: apple pie. Favorite word: friendship (of course). Height: five apples tall.

But why doesn’t she have a mouth? The Hello Kitty character was deliberately designed without a mouth because the lack of that visual cue makes it easier for people to project their own feelings on to the cartoon. Or as one author put it ‘the person can be happy or sad together with Hello Kitty’.

http://anitasnotebook.com/2011/02/the-real-story-behind-hello-kitty.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hello_Kitty