JL Immanuelle

Children’s Book Author & Illustrator

South African-based illustrator and author JL Immanuelle’s books combine fun story ideas with intriguing characters that are easy to relate to for the book’s age demographic.

My Story

I was born in Zeerust, a small town near Botswana in South Africa. Close after being born my parents me and my brother moved to Rustenburg where I attended school. My parents divorced when I was 8 and my father remarried a few years later.

At the age of 11 my stepmother bought me a children’s cookbook written by Margaret Ramsbottom called “Kos maak is pret”. As a child I absolutely loved the book and made every recipe in it. As the years went by, I stored the book somewhere in a box, needless to say I forgot about it.

At 15 me and my Mother moved to Johannesburg where I finished the rest of my school years at Hoërskool Noordheuwel.

From an early age my mother and grandparents were my inspiration and ever since I can remember I loved being creative in some form or another. I always knew I wanted to go into design, but wasn’t sure what type of design. At a later stage in my life I discovered an illustration program. I started to watch videos online to teach myself how to use the program and after a few months started an Invitation company. That’s when I discovered my passion for online design.

Damara is born…

At the age of 29 I had my first daughter and at 35 my second daughter was born. Like most little girls they loved princesses, mermaids and fairies.

One day while cleaning out the house I discovered the box filled with things from the past. Amongst it was my childhood cookbook. “An old friend indeed making its appearance once again’’.

I showed my daughters and told them about what joy the book had brought me and started thinking about how I could bring this idea back to life for my own children. I came up with the concept of a children storybook combined with a cookbook. That way my children would have the best of both worlds, in my Opinion.

I started doodling some characters and ideas until I came across an illustration of a little girl that totally fit the description of the character I had in mind for the stories.

And that is how Damara was born…

Collaborate with Me

I love collaborating with like-minded brands and people. I welcome enquiries from other authors, influencers, bloggers and businesses that want to collaborate.

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