From four-foot-tall toys to tiny pocket plushies, all kinds of merchandise contribute to Joyce Harveston’s Hello Kitty collection. She started her assortment almost 13 years ago and now has well over $3k worth of Hello Kitty toys.

“I don’t know how the obsession started, but she’s always been a character that I liked,” Harveston said. “She’s adorable and an icon. Her message is to never see the bad in people and her thing is that she has no mouth because actions speak louder than words. I kind of try to integrate her message in my personal life and I have hundreds of her in clothing, Funko pops, foods, and more.”

Her parents started buying stuff for her collection when she was just three years old, and her collection has only expanded since then.

“I don’t think my parents knew that buying me it [Hello Kitty] when I was three would balloon into whatever obsession this is,” Harveston said. “I have two shelves in my room that are from one wall to the other, and then I have them on my bookshelf, I have them on my desk, I have them on my bed, and all over my closet.”

Her parents encourage her to enlarge her collection and support the Hello Kitty message.

“We love her collection, we support it and add to it when we can,” Joyce’s mom Tami Harveston said. “Joyce’s Hello Kitty collection is her self-expression, and if you’re asking me she picked a good character that’s all about friendship, love, and respect.”

Many comparisons between Hello Kitty and Harveston make her collection unique. Hello Kitty is a twin, and so is Joyce.

“I mean there are a lot of similarities between Joyce and Hello Kitty. It’s not just a collection but an identity,” Joyce’s dad Garlen Harveston said. “She has twin siblings and we didn’t know Hello Kitty was a twin until way later.”

When starting high school, Joyce gained the name “Hello Kitty Girl” and enjoys showing her friends her collection.

“I find her collection to be so admiring because a lot of people do not have a real passion like that,” sophomore Dana Jordan said. “I’ve seen her collection and it covers her entire room and you can see her love for Hello Kitty. Some people may look at her weird, but as long as she likes it, that’s all that matters. Compared to my room, her room is so decorated and I doubt that her obsession will ever end.”

Harveston finds comfort in her collection and is scared to move away if it means leaving most of it behind.

“My collection is literally the reason why I’m a little scared to move away for college,” said Harveston. “Because I don’t want to pick which ones I have to take with me. My obsession with her will never end, and even when I’m older I will be having my house decorated with her.”

The more that Harveston’s identity intertwines with Hello Kitty, the bigger her collection will grow.

“Any other person I’ve talked to about it told me that I will probably never grow out of my collection,” Harveston said. “Since my collection is so big, it would suck to stop it now. It’s been so long, I don’t know what it’s like to not love Hello Kitty.”