Courageous pirates instead of princesses waiting to be rescued. Girls exploring the world, being independent and free.

This is Susanne, our captain - she writes and illustrates Ilvie Little’s adventures.

Susanne has been traveling most of her life. She spent several months in Ghana working on a school project; went to Australia to see the Barrier Reef and Ayers Rock and to learn about the telepathic abilities of the Aborigines; she sailed around the world as a ship’s photographer; dived deep into most of the world’s oceans; and explored parts of China on a side car motorbike.

After all that, she moved to Vienna and opened her own photo studio, photographed, and directed lots of international campaigns, specialized in underwater visuals (people, not fish:)), exhibited her photography and video installations in lots of different parts of the world, moved to Paris for a few years - moved back to Vienna for now (…just for now, she says).

...when she finds time, Susanne also (ghost-) writes kid's books for other publishers.

International licensing and press? Finding cool partners around the globe? This is Polina. 

Born in Mumbai, raised in Australia, Moscow and London, Polina studied journalism and worked in PR for a while. When she became Mom of two daughters, Polina realised, there was a decent lack of cool kid’s fashion in the city she lived (Moscow it was at that time). So she partnered up with a French kid’s fashion brand and opened something like 16 shops in the city.

After some years, Polina thought: Seen it, done it -  there must be some new adventures waiting for me… Now based in Vienna, Polina is taking care of our international contacts & PR, checking out new wholesale and production partners, organising our fair shows and doing lots of other things that just have to be done.

...yes, you're totally right. She IS Ella - our queen of the Elves in our Ilvie Little Musical.

She did the casting, we were absolutely enchanted by her voice, her acting, her personality - just everything. And luckily, Lucy decided to stay on board and become a member of the crew. And now - YEAH! - Lucy sails with us. (When she's not on stage or at university, that is).

You can meet Lucy at our fair booths, our treasure hunts, our pirate parties. And if you're really lucky, when she has one of her rare breaks, you can even hear her sing. 🤩

Visiting us at a fair or any other event? You'll find Tamara right there on our pirate ship!

…somehow we lost count on how many times Tamara has travelled around the globe. There must be only a few countries in the world Tamara hasn’t seen yet. Currently she lives in the hills around Bologna - but you have to be really lucky to meet her there.

Fluent in around 5-7 languages, Tamara works as a travel guide, specialised in sustainable tourism. Tamara is our captain when it comes to sailing our pirate ship Anastasia to international fairs. You meet her at our fair booths, big smile on her face - most of the time talking to several kids & grown ups at the same time, switching languages in a sentence.

This is Sonja, our producer and consultant for publishing business matters.  

Sonja has been in the book business for decades, she's a skilled book dealer, has realised tons of books and has worked in really big publishing houses. Sonja definitely knows all the little obstacles and stumbling blocks in the industry (and, most important: she knows how to get around them).

Without her knowledge and power, Ilvie Little would still be a manuscript in a box.

...lovely, passionate, and with the eyes of an eagle: This is Pia, our editor.

Pia examines every word, every letter, every punctuation mark. A little change here, a little twist there. Night shifts and tight deadlines can't stop our power-Pia - her precision and her good mood are bulletproof!

Pia has been in the business for over two decades. After her studies in Vienna, Paris, and Montpellier, she's worked as an editor for big publishing companies in Hamburg and Vienna - specializing in children's books, of course. Pia now runs her own company based in Vienna, editing and translating books, magazines - and basically everything that she likes...

 ...always searching for new fonts, cool designs, and other nice stuff: This is Tine, our book design captain.

For more than 20 years, Tine has been designing books, magazines, and advertising campaigns for many publishing companies and clients. Born in the Black Forest, Tine studied communications design and later set out to Vienna. She became a partner in a known communications agency and helped make the agency really big. Until... one day, she thought: There must be something else to life. Tine quit, founded her own company and moved to Zurich.

Tine now works for international clients, travels a lot and does exactly what she loves most: She designs books.

...regardless of how stressful things get and how many projects there are on her desk: This woman has never been seen without a big smile on her face. Meet Silvia, our graphic artist.

Books, book, books – first she was a bookseller, then she did book marketing for several large publishing companies, studied book design and founded her own company. Books are Silvia's passion. Sometimes, when the desk is not too full and she feels like a day off, Silvia can be seen on the peaks of the highest mountains. Phew!

Silvia has been in the book business for more than 20 years now.

...an adventurer herself: no mountain too high, no valley too low... This is Linda, our translator.

Linda was born in Washington, spent some time living with the Seneca Indians in NY state, studied in Berkeley, California, wrote her Ph.D. dissertation about strong, independent women in early modern German literature. Phew!

Linda has been all over the US, Europe, and Central America, has translated many books about all kinds of topics - and she now teaches German to kids in the US so she can “share the love”, as she says. For us, it's very amazing to see how Linda took up Ilvie's story, absorbed it - and then re-told it in her own beautiful language.

Another fact that we love: Linda now lives in VIENNA! But, as she puts it: in the 'wrong' Vienna... it's actually Vienna, Virginia, USA. So both versions of the book were written in Vienna - just a few thousand kilometers apart - and with a big ocean in between :)

...the crazier the photo shoot gets, the bigger the smile on her face: This is Lia!

Lia is our stylist and she designs the beautiful Ilvie Little clothes. This woman just knows all the little tricks in the fashion business: Where to get the best organic cotton, whom to ask for that little extra glitter on the prints - and how to make our kids' clothing the most beautiful, sustainable and comfortable it can be.

She's been in the fashion business for years, studied at Institut Francais de la Mode, lives in Paris now (of course...) and works for one of the beautiful big fashion houses there.

...there’s no job too tricky, no material sourcing too hard. Making clothes including that extra portion of love and passion: This is Elena!

Elena is the boss of the Ilvie Little fashion production site. She and her wonderful troop are sewing your pullovers and clothes!

'My life is a journey!', Elena says. (One of the reasons why she fits so brilliantly into our team). After teaching economics at a high school for a while, Elena thought that there must be more than this - and found her passion and love in the fashion industry. She went back to school herself and learned everything about fashion production. In Casablanca, Morocco - where Elena and her family lived for some years.

Coming back to Romania, where she was born, Elena worked for a big French fashion brand - and when the brand closed down production in Romania, Elena knew: this is my moment! - and opened her own production site

…seriously - it was really hard for Michaela. We had to dry her tears. She did not want to let him go - but we just HAD to take him with us.

“It happens quite often that I fall in love with my characters…”, she says. “But with Theo, it was very special. I had the feeling that he’s, my friend!” Michaela adds, sniffling.

Michaela is a doll-maker. For many years, she has created all kinds of dolls and figures for theater, film, and TV. And the best thing is, that Michaela is also a puppeteer in the theater – so she knows exactly how to create a character. Now Michaela comes to visit regularly to see her friend Theo… - whom she misses a lot, as she tells us.

https://www.figuren-atelier.at

This is the killer troop (and on the pic you see only a small part of it - there are many more!).

Our most important consultants and advisors. Curious and critical as can be, relentlessly sharing their thoughts and opinions… We grown ups think this twist in the story is cool? - Ask the killer troop. They will give their opinion straight away. Without any mercy. We love you, killer troop!