Hello Kitty going strong at 30

She struts the Inflatable Castle catwalk at New York fashion shows and she's best friends with Mariah Carey and Cameron Diaz.

She makes 0 million a year, but prefers relaxing at home with friends and baking cakes in her spare time. Hello Kitty, one of Japan's most famous character brands, may be heading for her 30th birthday, but the silky feline is showing no signs of her age.

The cute white cat with the pink bow on her ear accounts for half of Sanrio's annual revenues of billion, and is emblazoned on over 20,000 goods - everything from toasters and handbags to adult toys - in some 40 countries. Hello Kitty even has her own theme park.

"From cutlery and coffee cups to the toilet seat cover, almost everything in my one-room apartment was Hello Kitty, even the curtains," says Tomoko Taniai, a 25-year old Tokyoite and ex-Kitty lover. "But after a while, on TV and in magazines it was just Kitty, Kitty, Kitty. I couldn't keep up anymore."

So how did a mouthless cat with no story line become an international brand sensation?

"I just like her because she is like the Mona Lisa, you never know if she is smiling or if she is sad," says a fan on Kitty Realm, an Internet message board where Hello Kitty aficionados meet to purr about her lovable quirks. Unlike other popular characters such as Mickey Mouse or Winnie the Pooh, whose images remain strictly controlled by their owners, Kitty's designers have been given largely free rein by Sanrio.