Your questions,
answered.

When I Grow Up is a personalised printed picture book that reflects your child's actual dreams back to them. Not a fairy tale, not an adventure story — their story. The book is built from a short questionnaire you fill in about your child: their dream job, their perfect Saturday, who they most want to make proud, and more.

Every book is unique. The illustrations, the character, the narrative — all generated specifically for your child and printed as a beautiful 38-page hardback.

Most personalised children's books put your child's name into a pre-written adventure story. When I Grow Up is different — the entire narrative is built around what your child actually said. Their dream job, their dream home, their message to the world.

The result reads nothing like a template. It reads like a book written for, and about, one specific child — because it was.

The book is written for children aged 4 to 12. The narrative is warm and accessible for younger children, while remaining genuinely meaningful for older ones. The questionnaire can be filled in by a parent for younger children, or together with the child for ages 7 and up.

The book is 38 pages — a 16-chapter narrative with a full-page illustration for each chapter, plus a front cover, inside covers, prologue, and back cover synopsis. It's printed as an A4 landscape paperback, which gives the illustrations plenty of room to breathe.

As soon as your order is confirmed, you'll receive an email with a personal link to your questionnaire. This is where you answer 21 short questions about your child — their personality, their dreams, who they love, and what they want to say to the world.

Once you submit the questionnaire, our system gets to work. Your child's story is written, their character is illustrated, and a complete book PDF is created — typically within 15 to 30 minutes. Our team reviews every book before it reaches you, then it goes to print.

No — a photo is optional. If you choose to upload one, it helps us create an illustrated character that looks like your child. We use it only to generate the artwork; it is never shared or used for any other purpose.

If you'd prefer not to upload a photo, you can describe your child's appearance instead — hair colour, eye colour, skin tone, any distinctive features — and we'll build the character from that description alone.

Once you submit your questionnaire, the book PDF is created and reviewed within 24 hours. Print and delivery typically takes a further 5 to 7 working days for UK orders. We'll keep you updated at each stage by email.

Yes. Before your book is sent to print, you'll receive an email with a link to view the complete PDF. You can read every page, check every illustration, and confirm you're happy before anything is printed. If something doesn't look right, just let us know.

If you haven't yet approved your book preview, contact us and we can make adjustments. Once you've approved the PDF and it's gone to print, changes aren't possible for that order — but we're always happy to help where we can.

If you upload a photo, the character is generated using it as a visual reference — the same face, hair, and colouring appear consistently across all 16 illustrations. The likeness won't be photorealistic (this is a picture book, not a portrait), but the resemblance is usually clear and recognisable.

If you describe your child's appearance instead, the character will reflect those details — the right hair colour and texture, eye colour, and skin tone — with a consistent look across the whole book.

The illustrations are warm, cinematic, and storybook-style — full-colour, full-page scenes with a soft, slightly magical quality. Think premium children's picture book rather than cartoon. The style is consistent across all 16 pages, so the book feels cohesive from cover to cover.

Your child's photo is used solely to generate the illustrated character for their book. It is stored securely and is never shared, sold, or used for any purpose beyond creating your order.

You can request deletion of your child's photo and all generated images at any time by emailing us. We will remove them within 30 days.

Your answers are used to generate the book and are stored securely on our servers. Our small team may review them as part of the quality check before your book goes to print. We do not share them with third parties beyond the services required to create and deliver your order (such as our print partner).

You can request a copy of all data we hold about your order, or ask us to delete it, at any time.

All payments are processed by Shopify Payments, which is PCI DSS compliant. We never see or store your card details. Shopify's payment infrastructure is used by over a million businesses worldwide.

We currently deliver to the UK. If you're based outside the UK and would like to order, please get in touch — we may be able to help.

Because every book is created specifically for your child, we're unable to offer refunds once your questionnaire has been submitted and the book has been generated. If there is a printing error or the book arrives damaged, we'll replace it at no cost to you.

If you change your mind before submitting your questionnaire, contact us and we'll arrange a full refund.

Yes — each book is a separate order with its own questionnaire. Many families order one for each child, or return each year as their child's answers change. The annual edition — same child, new answers, one year later — is one of our favourite ways to use the book.

Absolutely. You can fill in the questionnaire on behalf of a child as a gift — grandparents often do this beautifully, drawing on years of knowing a grandchild. The book is packaged to gift-giving standard and arrives ready to give.

If you'd like a specific delivery date for a birthday or occasion, let us know at checkout and we'll do our best to accommodate.