Many followers had been left purrrrrfectly confused after this revelation.

“Hello Kitty is not a cat,” Jill Cook—an government at Sanrio, the corporate behind the character—defined to Today July 18. “She’s actually a little girl born and raised in the suburbs of London. She has a mom and dad and a twin sister Mimmy who’s also her best friend. She enjoys baking cookies and making new friends.” 

While the information might have shocked some, Cook wasn’t the primary to share this perception. As a matter of reality, Christine R. Yano—a professor of anthropology who penned the guide Pink Globalization: Hello Kitty’s Trek Across the Pacific—had additionally beforehand confirmed that Hello Kitty isn’t a feline.

“Hello Kitty is not a cat,” she advised the Los Angeles Times in 2014. “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.”

Other enjoyable info about Hello Kitty? According to Sanrio, she is 5 apples tall, weighs three apples, was born on November 1 (making her a Scorpio) and desires of being a pianist or poet.