Your pet, painted into their own storybook.

Pick a story, upload a clear photo of your dog, cat, or whichever animal you live with, and enter their name. We turn your pet into a consistent illustrated character and create an 8.5-inch square hardcover book starring them.

Yes. We generate the illustrations with AI from the photo you upload, in a painted gouache-and-watercolor style — it is not painted by hand on paper. Every book is checked by our team before it goes to print, and we do not use your photos to train AI models.

That is the whole point, so you see the cover painted from your photo before you pay a cent. We keep the things that make your pet theirs — face shape, ears, coloring, markings, collar — while translating them into the storybook style. A sharp, well-lit photo of their face gives us the most to work with. Then, before anything prints, a person opens your photo next to every page and checks; a page that drifts is painted again, not shipped. If the book that arrives still is not them, we repaint it or refund you.

Yes, if you order by Friday, December 4 with standard shipping. After that, the faster shipping offered at checkout can still make it, and the arrival date shown there for your address is the one that counts. Carriers run late in the last week before Christmas, so earlier is safer.

Any pet we can see clearly in your photo. Dogs and cats are what most people send us, and they are the animals we have tuned the longest — but rabbits, birds, horses, guinea pigs, lizards and the rest are welcome at the same price. A few stories are written for a particular kind of hero — one needs an animal small enough to fit under a bench — and each book’s own page says so. Two honest limits: the star has to be an animal rather than a person, and it has to be somebody’s pet rather than wildlife. We check your photo the moment you upload it and tell you right there if we cannot use it, before you pay for anything.

We keep them, and you can have them gone whenever you want. Your photo, what you typed, and the artwork painted from them stay with us so we can reprint a book that arrives damaged, put a wrong one right, and make your next book without asking you to upload the same photo twice. To end that, email support@illustratedyou.com, or ask us to close your account — a person here then erases your photo, your personalization and the files made from them. Your pet is private from the public whichever you do: no public gallery, no searchable books, no advertising without asking you separately, and we never train AI models on your photos. Inside the shop it is seen by the person who checks your book against your photo, and it passes through the AI, printing and email providers we use to make and send the book. See our Privacy Policy for details.

Books start at $54.99. Each one is a personalized hardcover made to order, and the price of each book is shown on its own page.

Every book is created and printed to order, so it is not a same-week delivery. Most orders arrive in about two weeks: a couple of days to illustrate the book and have a person check it, then printing, binding, and shipping. The date shown for your address before you pay is the one that counts, and we email you a tracking link as soon as it ships.

Personalized books are made to order, so we do not accept change-of-mind returns. Check your book when it arrives — if it turns up damaged, misprinted, badly bound, or not the book you ordered because of a mistake on our side, tell us straight away with photos and we will replace it free. Email support@illustratedyou.com with your order number and clear photos of the problem. What we do not replace is a book you simply changed your mind about, one damaged after it reached you, or a problem caused by what was submitted with the order.

No. What we sell is a personalized printed hardcover only — no digital download is included.

One pet, facing the camera, in good light — daylight near a window is ideal. We work from what we can actually see, so a photo where the face, coloring, and markings are sharp gives the best likeness. Avoid heavy shadow, a busy background, a costume, or a photo with two pets in it. A phone picture is completely fine; it just needs to be in focus and not cropped so tightly that the head is cut off.

The cover, yes — the inside pages, no. Upload one photo and we paint their cover free, in about a minute, before you pay anything: if it is not them, paint it again or walk away having spent nothing. The interior is painted after you order, and there is no proof for you to approve. What happens instead is that a person here opens your photo next to every finished page and compares them before the book goes to the printer; a page that has drifted is painted again rather than shipped. If the pet inside is not the pet on the cover you approved, we repaint it or refund you.

Checkout is handled by Stripe, which takes all major credit and debit cards along with Apple Pay and Google Pay. Your card details go straight to Stripe and never touch our systems — we receive a confirmation that you paid, not your card number.

Check your book when it arrives — if it turns up damaged, misprinted, badly bound, or not the book you ordered because of a mistake on our side, tell us straight away with photos and we will replace it free. Message us through our support page with your order number and clear photos of the problem. We reply within one business day, and an approved claim gets a free replacement of the same book with the same personalization — you do not need to send the original back unless we ask. Replacements cover damage in transit, printing and binding defects, and a book that does not match what you ordered because of our error; they do not cover change of mind or damage that happens once the book is yours.

No. Our books star pets, and a photo whose subject is a person is turned away at upload. Any future child-starring product would receive a separate consent, privacy, and safety review before it is offered.