Hello Kitty! Hello World!

Dial back to 1987--First "real" job at Baskin Robbins, cash in my pocket and change in my new Hello Kitty coin purse! Got a little ribbing from my friends, but they weren't the ones with the 1st real job, 1st real boyfriend (an actor...so cute in "South Pacific!"), and a summer full of theater parties!

By the time my daughter was born, Sanrio had taken Hello Kitty into the marketing stratosphere. Hello Kitty was everywhere, and of course, I wanted Jill to have Hello Kitty everything! (I did the same thing with dolls for her. We laugh now because she really wasn't ever into dolls.) I do think she liked Hello Kitty, though, because she still has calendar cut-outs in her room. And, what's not to love? Hello Kitty has her own restaurants, shops, friends, and is rich, rich, rich! It's the American dream Japanese style.