Shimizu got the name Kitty from Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass during a scene early in the book, Alice plays with a cat she calls Kitty. Sanrio already had several characters set in the US, and it wanted Hello Kitty to be different. Sanrio decided to make Hello Kitty British because foreign countries, including Britain in particular, were trendy in Japan at the time of Hello Kitty's creation. She first appeared in the United States in 1976 when Sanrio opened a Gift Gate store in San Jose, California. The character's first appearance on an item was in March 1975 on a vinyl coin purse sold in Japan, where she was pictured sitting between a bottle of milk and a goldfish bowl. Hello Kitty was designed by Yuko Shimizu and was added to the lineup of early Sanrio characters in 1974. The company produced a line of character merchandise centered around gift-giving occasions. Tsuji noted the profits gained by adding a cute design to the shoes and hired cartoonists to design cute characters for his merchandise.
In 1962, Shintaro Tsuji, founder of Sanrio, began selling rubber sandals with flowers painted on them. Yuko Shimizu was the original designer of Hello Kitty. There are Sanrio theme parks based on Hello Kitty: Harmonyland in Hiji, Ōita, Japan Sanrio Puroland in Tama New Town, Tokyo, Japan and the former Sanrio Hello Kitty Town in Iskandar Puteri, Johor, Malaysia.
A number of Hello Kitty TV series targeted towards children have been produced, as well as several manga comics and anime films. A variety of products ranging from school supplies to fashion accessories to motor oil have featured the character over the years. First marketed toward pre-teenage girls, Hello Kitty's image found commercial success among not only her original target audience but adolescent and adult consumers as well. Hello Kitty is a staple of the kawaii segment of Japanese popular culture. 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. Shortly after Hello Kitty's creation in 1974, the Hello Kitty vinyl coin purse was introduced by Sanrio in March 1975. Since the cartoon character's creation, 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 1974. According to her backstory, she is a perpetual 3rd-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 produced by the Japanese company Sanrio, created by Yuko Shimizu and currently designed by Yuko Yamaguchi. Megumi Hayashibara (1990–present), others