Hello Kitty is a beloved Japanese cartoon character created by Yuko Shimizu and owned by the Japanese company Sanrio

. Contrary to her name, she is not a cat but rather an anthropomorphized white cat with a red bow and no visible mouth

. According to her backstory, she lives in a London suburb with her family and is close to her twin sister Mimmy, who is depicted with a yellow bow

. Hello Kitty is portrayed as a bright and kind-hearted girl, very close to her twin sister Mimmy, and is good at baking cookies and loves her mama's homemade apple pie

. She has also been depicted with several animal friends, including the mice Joey and Judy, the bears Tippy and Thomas, the raccoon Tracy, and the squirrel Rorry

. The revelation that Hello Kitty is not a cat was confirmed by anthropologist Christine R. Yano in 2014, when she was preparing information for a Hello Kitty exhibit at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles

. According to Yano, Hello Kitty is actually a little girl named Kitty White, the daughter of George and Mary White, and has a twin sister named Mimmy