Created on November 1st, 1974 by the Japanese company Sanrio, the cartoon character Hello Kitty has risen to a very high prominence around the world, especially in the United States.
Hello Kitty's fictional "birthplace" is Suburban Cambridge where she lives with parents George and Mary Bell.
She has a twin sister called Mimmy and several "friends" that she is commonly associated with.
She enjoys traveling, reading, music, and making new friends.
The world of Hello Kitty contains many other famous characters including but not limited to Batz Maru, Pochacco, Keroppi, and Hello Kitty's boyfriend Dear Danial but Hello Kitty is without a doubt the most popular.
The design for Hello Kitty was originally intended for greeting cards, but when the character's obvious popularity began rising, more and more products began using the Hello Kitty image.
At first, these products were targeted towards the young female population, but over time other types of merchandise added the brand.
Today, there is a Hello Kitty version of almost any item imaginable, such as a widely popular Hello Kitty digital camera, the Hello Kitty digital watch line, and Hello Kitty backpacks for children to tote their books in colorful style.
On another interesting note, in 2005 Eva Airlines unveiled the world's first ever Hello Kitty jet plane.
To properly put into perspective the amount of fame Hello Kitty has generated, consider this: The Sanrio Company has created well over 400 different and unique characters.
In 2005, Sanrio released financial reports stating a profit of around $800 million dollars.
Of that $800 million dollars, half of it comes from Hello Kitty related profits alone.
So what exactly led to Hello Kitty's rise in fame? Around the late 1990's, celebrities such as Mariah Carey started promoting Hello Kitty.
Several other famous icons followed suit, and today, Hello Kitty has been associated with the likes of Carmen Electra, Mandy Moore, Paris Hilton, and Ricky Martin just to name a few.
References to Hello Kitty have been seen in many very popular television shows like The Simpsons, South Park, and even Grey's Anatomy.
She has starred in several shows and made appearances in many animated movies.
An interesting mystery surrounding Hello Kitty that has plagued many of her fans for years is the reason behind her lack of a mouth.
The official response from the company is that she speaks from the heart and as such, is not bound to any language.
However, many people feel that this is not an adequate response and have debated about it for a quite a while now.
As Hello Kitty is often seen in many different outfits, some people speculate that the designers behind Hello Kitty intended for her clothes to describe her emotions and therefore she should not have a mouth.
Others guess that in designing Hello Kitty, the Sanrio Company wanted to keep her independent of any one nation or culture, so they created her without a mouth so that she would not speak any individual language.
Regardless of the true reason behind this mystery, Hello Kitty has risen to the top of the cartoon character charts all around the world.