I had never heard of it until someone on another forum had a Hetalia avatar with Prussia in it and I absolutely had to know who it was because I thought he was cute. xD
...Although I find a lot of people cute who I just should NOT find cute. Like Stalin. And Molotov, Goebbels, and Mussolini. :/
Oh, she does? I don't know anyone in real life who likes Hetalia.
Well, according to Wikipedia the manga came out in 2003 and the anime about a year ago.
(I actually didn't think it was that old, to be honest.)