Our story · Cape Town · Since August 2025
Our four‑year‑old accidentally started this business.
We're Nick and Michaella. This is the story of one bedtime book that got out of hand — and the rules we made for ourselves when 500 families asked for their own.
Worried about the photo? Skip to what happens to it →
👋 Nick, Michaella & the reason we started
🐉 Book oneChapter one
The dragon lived, apparently, just up the road.
One evening our four-year-old came to us with an epic. He was the hero. There was a baby dragon. It lived, he was quite sure, near our house in Cape Town, and the two of them had a lot to get done.
Nick has a background in AI, so he did what he knew: he turned the story into a real book, illustrated with our son as the hero. He was completely captivated.
We showed it to friends. They showed theirs. Before long more than 500 families had asked for one — and in August 2025, Picture Me was born.
Chapter two
What the software does, and what we do.
People ask, quietly, whether this is “AI”. Part of it is — and we'd rather tell you exactly which part than leave you wondering.
The software
Built in-house by Nick. It has one job.
- Learns what your child looks like from the photos you send.
- Draws them into the illustrations of a story we've already written — the same child, page after page.
- That's all. It doesn't write the story, and your photos never train it.
Us
A small team of parents. Every book.
- We write every story ourselves, with a lesson we'd want at our own bedtime.
- A real person checks every book.
- You see a preview, and nothing prints until you approve it.
- We answer the WhatsApp ourselves. One of us, never a bot.
“We won't pretend the illustration isn't technology — it's the only reason a hardcover with your child inside is possible at all. Everything around it is people who care whether you love the book.”
Chapter three
The rules we'd want for our own child's photo.
You're about to send a photo of your child to people you've never met. We know how that feels — ours is on our first book. So here is exactly what happens to it:
- 1
It makes one book — theirs. Not a catalogue, not an ad, not anyone else's story.
- 2
It never trains a model. Your child's face teaches our software nothing.
- 3
It's deleted 30 days after the book arrives. Sooner if you ask — one message is enough.
- 4
You see every page before it prints. Nothing you didn't approve ends up on paper.
The long version is in our privacy policy.
Deleted in 30 days
Chapter four
We're small. Please check.
We'd rather you looked us up than took our word for it. Everything below is public — and the WhatsApp number reaches one of us.
- books gifted
- 1 000+books gifted
- on Google, from 41 reviews
- 5.0on Google, from 41 reviews
- working days to your door, printed in SA
- 7–10working days to your door, printed in SA
- WhatsApp — Nick or Michaella, Mon–Fri
- +27 76 302 8931WhatsApp — Nick or Michaella, Mon–Fri
What families said on Google
“What a great service and the surprise on my grandson's face when he opened the book, was priceless!!”
South Africa 🇿🇦
Every review, unedited, is on our Google listing, and you can see real books arriving on Instagram @picturemeza.
The end (for now)
Every book we make is a way of giving another child the look ours had — the moment they realise the hero is them.
Nick & Michaella
Parents first · Picture Me, Cape Town
Now make theirs.
Type their name and watch the cover change. You'll send photos after checkout, and approve the preview before we print.
Questions first? WhatsApp us — Nick or Michaella replies.