The image of the character, a little cartoon girl and a little cartoon boy, has been shared on various platforms such as Meme Your Know, iFunny, Tumblr, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, and TikTok since 2018. The image went viral in 2023, depicting the supposed “boyfriend” of Hello Kitty, as claimed in a press statement issued by the creator, Daniel. Hello Kitty is a fictional character created in 1974, gaining popularity worldwide among adults and teenagers, featuring various items with its likeness.
@a.dumbmymelodykin real#cuteart #deardaniel #hellokitty #hellokittysboyfriend #deardaniel #is #a #trans #icon ♬ Real Men – Mitski
“Just discovered that Hello Kitty is in a relationship with a genderqueer girl,” someone remarked.
Just found out that Hello Kitty is dating a genderqueer girl. by u/epicazeroth in actuallesbians
Other users on social media asserted, “Daniel is a he/him lesbian and we appreciate that.”
The assertion was showcased in a stored article released by NewNation in August 2014, which we discovered using Wayback Machine, a virtual repository of web pages. The website TwoWay AI directed to its URL; nonetheless, the NewNation website was inaccessible at the time of composing this. Several remarks implied that the assertion was initially published by NewNation, a previous satirical news platform in Singapore.
(Screenshot from the Wayback Machine).
We checked if the rumor was true by looking at the official website created by Sanrio, the Japanese entertainment company that Kitty Hello said.
Dear Daniel is a childhood friend and boyfriend of Hello Kitty. The spiky hair is his signature look. Dear Daniel is a sensitive and attentive guy. He likes cheesecake and yogurt. He is good at dancing and playing the piano, and he enjoys photographing animals. Dear Daniel went to Africa with his photographer father but came back from New York after traveling the world to be with Hello Kitty.He wants to become a cameraman or maybe even make his debut in the show business.
We discovered a comparable portrayal of Dear Daniel on the Hello Kitty fandom site. It stated:
Dear Daniel (ディアダニエル, Dia Danieru), also known by his full name Daniel Starr (ダニエル・スター, Danieru Sutā), is a Japanese male bobtail cat just like Hello Kitty herself, Daniel is a cat based character from the Japanese company Sanrio. He is Hello Kitty’s childhood friend and also her boyfriend. His birthday is on May 3rd, which makes his zodiac sign Taurus. He’s the same age as her and they’ve known each other since they were kittens. He gave a pet hamster named Sugar to her. He finds wonder in even the smallest things and pays special attention to how he looks – very trendy, sensitive and naive.
“In fact, there was no evidence to support the claim that Daniel’s gender identity was changing at any point in the universe. Furthermore, both websites clearly stated that Kitty’s boyfriend identified as a boy.”
Hello Kitty, the character that reputable news outlets reported on around the same time the August 2014 article by NewNation was published, was a young girl rather than a cat.
In 2014, Christine Yano, an anthropologist from the University of Hawaii who has spent years studying the phenomenon of Hello Kitty, was interviewed by the Los Angeles Times. She claimed that Hello Kitty is a famous character and considered a cultural phenomenon.
Hello Kitty is not a cat.
You read that right. When Yano was preparing her written texts for the exhibit at the Japanese American National Museum, she says she described Hello Kitty as a cat. “I was corrected — very firmly,” she says. “That’s one correction Sanrio made for my script for the show. Hello Kitty is not a cat. She’s a cartoon character. She is a little girl. She is a friend. But she is not a cat. She’s never depicted on all fours. She walks and sits like a two-legged creature. She does have a pet cat of her own, however, and it’s called Charmmy Kitty.”
I grew up with Hello Kitty everything and all I have to say is, MIND BLOWN.
Sanrio officially verified in its authorized biography that the character, described as “a cheerful young girl,” became a sensation, as numerous individuals were astounded to learn that Hello Kitty was not actually a feline. This revelation garnered extensive media coverage from esteemed news outlets such as The Washington Post, Time, and BBC.