Hello Kitty is a girl not a cat news has become a worldwide sensation since the shocking revelation was made public by the Los Angeles Times. The statement from Sanrio, the company that owns the cartoon, "Hello Kitty is a girl not a cat", is simple yet firm and has sent fans into a frenzy of questions.

According to multiple reports, the unexpected revelation was made in an LA Times article published Wednesday.

CNN reports that the Hello Kitty is a girl not a cat news was made public when a speech by Hello Kitty trend expert and anthropologist Christine R. Yano at the University of Hawaii was corrected by Sanrio. Yano was to open a retrospective of Hello Kitty stuff next month at the Japanese American National Museum.

Yano was interviewed by the LA Times. She said she was sternly told by Sanrio not to confuse Hello Kitty with a cat. According to the Business Insider, she was preparing a script for the opening of a big Hello Kitty conference when Sanrio set her straight.

The LA Times' report on the Hello Kitty is a girl not a cat bombshell read:

"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."

Little did Yano know that she was to receive the biggest shockers of her life.

Yano told the LA Times, "I was corrected - very firmly. 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 added, "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."

In other parts of the world, children and adults alike were affected. The news of Hello Kitty is a girl not a cat has reached far and wide.

The news apparently reached a shocked rapper Mike Shinoda after a Linkin Park gig at the Minnesota State Fair.

Shinoda tweeted from backstage saying, "I just got off stage to find out that Hello Kitty is not a cat. This is worse than finding out Pluto is not a planet."

Introduced to the world in 1974 by Japanese company Sanrio, Hello Kitty has become an international superstar, appearing in a wide variety of merchandise which the company has made billions from.

All these years, probably since her conception in the '70s, nobody was fully aware that Hello Kitty is a girl not a cat.

Apparently, everybody believed that with her whiskers and pointy ears, Hello Kitty was a cat. Social media, specifically Twitter has been abuzz with reaction from fans all over.

One user, @jkltoraay tweeted: "You cannot say hello kitty is not a cat after 40 years no human has whiskers and pointed ears and a little yellow nose."

User @NotKennyRogers even had a hard time going to bed with the news that Hello Kitty is a girl not a cat.

"Been tossing and turning for the last few hours trying to figure out how Hello Kitty isn't a cat. How is it possible? What does it mean?," the Tweet read.

A @mrsunlawyer tweeted, "Since Hello Kitty isn't a cat, wtf is My Melody?"

According to CNN, even on Wikipedia, users were quick to update Hello Kitty's real identity. The new entry on the beloved character now reads, "She bears the appearance of a white Japanese bobtail cat with a red bow although she is actually a little girl."

Singer Katy Perry also had a say on the news that Hello Kitty is a girl not a cat, albeit jokingly. The pop star tweeted, "IT'S OKAY HELLO KITTY FANS, KITTY PURRY IS A CAT."

Since it has been put up online, the singer's tweet has garnered more than 13,000 re-tweets.

On the Sanrio website, it says: "Hello Kitty is a cheerful and happy little girl ... who lives in London with her mama (Mary White), papa (George White), and her twin sister Mimmy."

Apparently, Hello Kitty is a girl not a cat is proved in a backstory Sanrio and the cartoon's creator, Yuko Shimizu, made about her, reports the Business Insider. Her real name is "Kitty White," and she is British with a twin sister. She's also a perpetual third-grader.

Her birthday is November 1 and her hobbies reportedly include baking and making pancakes, origami and eating apple pie. She even has a favourite saying, which is "You can never have too many friends."

In the LA Times report, Yano explained:

"A lot of people don't know the story and a lot don't care. But it's interesting because Hello Kitty emerged in the 1970s, when the Japanese and Japanese women were into Britain."

She added, "They loved the idea of Britain. It represented the quintessential idealized childhood, almost like a white picket fence. So the biography was created exactly for the tastes of that time."

Hello Kitty is a girl not a cat was provided further proof when Sanrio pointed Time to Hello Kitty's official bio: "As tall as five apples, and as heavy as three, Hello Kitty is a bright little girl with a heart of gold. She loves to bake cookies and play the piano, and dreams of one day becoming a pianist or maybe even a poet. She has a gift for music and English, and a soft spot for Mama's apple pie. Hello Kitty and her twin sister Mimmy are the best of friends."