Hello Kitty has been an icon to me since I can remember. I have a lot of hello kitty merch throughout my home. I’ve been at the Hello Kitty Cafe, been to Hello Kitty stores, and have had Hello Kitty birthday parties. It sounds silly to spend so much money on a fictional cat, but it actually makes a lot of sense if you think about it. Here I’ll speak about my lifestyle with Kitty, but I’ll also go into detail about how she’s making a return into many people’s lives.

My life with Hello Kitty

Funnily enough, almost everywhere I turn I have Hello Kitty in a lot of parts in my day-to-day life. I have Hello Kitty shirts, pants, sweaters, hats, jackets, socks, bags, and more. I still have a sizeable amount of Hello Kitty stuffed animals that I’ve had since early childhood. My family even named one of our cats after her, and she wears a Hello Kitty collar. Whenever I scroll through social media, she’s always there.

Behind the Kitty

Hello kitty actually has a good amount of psychology in regard to her popularity. It’s actually been put on record that there is a reason she doesn’t have facial expressions. Yuko Yamaguchi, a Hello Kitty character designer stated “[She doesn’t have a mouth] so that people who look at her can project their own feelings onto her face because she has an expressionless face.”.

Why is Hello Kitty making a return in popularity?

It’s nice to know I’m not completely crazy. Stocks and research trends show that Hello Kitty is now more popular than ever. Now, I want to preface this by saying not every person who likes something is necessarily for a reason. Hello Kitty is a cute cartoon cat that is easily loveable. However, the most likely reason why is because people want to relive their childhood. It’s quite sad, but a lot of gen Z had to “grow up” at an accelerated rate compared to some prior generations. Whether it be because of their environment, friends, trauma, or something else entirely. To cope, some people still have elements of their childhood incorporated into their interests. Hello Kitty was extremely popular in the years 2004-2009, which is the main group of people who now still embrace her into their lives.