Happy birthday, Hello Kitty!

Not that I really need to remind anyone here, but today is Hello Kitty’s 35th birthday! Who would’ve thought that the 70s would give birth to a cartoon kitten who would then become one of pop culture’s most iconic figures for cute? Without Hello Kitty, there really wouldn’t be a GirlyBubble. Without Hello Kitty, you’d only have to celebrate one birthday in November. Mine. But as always, this isn’t about me.

To commemorate the life of Hello Kitty, the LA Times has an article detailing Hello Kitty’s claim to cute and rise to fame: Hello Kitty was created in Japan, in 1974, by Shintaro Tsuji as part of his greeting card company Sanrio. After an in-house design contest, the little Sanrio kitten was born, and Hello Kitty quickly became popular, boosting Sanrio’s sales in just two years and bringing her cute “kawaii” style to coin purses, diaries, stationery and notebooks. The childlike Sanrio cat quietly made its way to the United States in 1976, only two years after she was invented, and remained relatively dormant until the 1990s.

Read on about the history of Hello Kitty here. For information on events celebrating Hello Kitty’s 35th anniversary, head here.

Happy birthday, Hello Kitty!