Stop everything right now. Hello Kitty is not a cat. She’s a girl called Kitty White. Confused? We are too.

The revelation comes from Sanrio, the creators of the international toy, who contacted University of Hawaii anthropologist Christine R. Yano who was putting together a 40th anniversary retrospective of Hello Kitty in Los Angeles.

Professor Yano, speaking to the LA Times, said: “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."

According to the official Hello Kitty homepage, Kitty White was born in London on 1 November, and is ‘a cheerful and happy little girl with a heart of gold.’

She was born in England, Yano says, because of the culture during the 1970s: "Hello Kitty emerged in the 1970s, when the Japanese and Japanese women were into Britain".

"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."

Since her creation in 1974, Hello Kitty has become a global figure worth an estimated $7 billion to Sanrio.

Hello Kitty: Definitely a cat Show all 7 1 /7 Hello Kitty: Definitely a cat Hello Kitty: Definitely a cat Hello Kitty So what's all this nonsense about Hello Kitty not being a cat? Getty Hello Kitty: Definitely a cat Hello Kitty It certainly looks like a cat YOSHIKATSU TSUNO/AFP/Getty Hello Kitty: Definitely a cat Hello Kitty Ears, whiskers, tail... yep AP Hello Kitty: Definitely a cat Hello Kitty Sparkly and covered in diamonds, but still... Getty Images Hello Kitty: Definitely a cat Hello Kitty These people are absolutely 100 per cent positive that the toy they're holding/dressed as is supposed to be a cat AFP PHOTO/Kazuhiro NOGI Hello Kitty: Definitely a cat Hello Kitty Perhaps Hello Kitty is currently experiencing an identity crisis Neela Debnath/The Independent Hello Kitty: Definitely a cat Hello Kitty Whatever happens, just make sure this woman doesn't find out Shinsuke Kamioka/Guinness World Records

It's not the first time there have been doubts raised about who, or what exactly, a cartoon character is. In the 1990s there was discussion surrounding Goofy.

As much of the internet predictably exploded in shock at the news Kitty was not a cat, there was some good news as Peanuts confirmed that Snoopy, the world’s favourite dog, is thankfully a dog.