Hello Kitty has become one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time. By 2014, when Hello Kitty was 40 years old, she was worth about $8 billion a year. By 2010, Sanrio had turned Hello Kitty into a global marketing phenomenon, worth $6 billion a year. Sanrio brought the character to the United States in 1976. The Hello Kitty vinyl coin purse was introduced by Sanrio in March 1975. Since the character's creation in 1974, the Hello Kitty media franchise has grown to include clothing, accessories, toys, games, books, manga, anime series, and music albums, along with other various product lines and media productions. Kitty and her twin sister, Mimmy (depicted with a yellow bow), celebrate their birthday on 1 November. According to her backstory, she is a perpetual third-grade student who lives outside of London. Sanrio depicts Hello Kitty as a young female gijinka ( anthropomorphization) of a Japanese Bobtail cat with a red bow and no mouth.
Hello Kitty ( Japanese: ハロー・キティ, Hepburn: Harō Kiti), also known by her full name Kitty White ( キティ・ホワイト, Kiti Howaito), is a fictional character created by Yuko Shimizu, currently designed by Yuko Yamaguchi, and owned by the Japanese company Sanrio. Megumi Hayashibara (1990–present), others
