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A shared purpose, born from real-life conversations
Meet Julie & Caz
The book creators
Dr. Julie (PhD) is a best-selling author, international speaker, and leading expert in infant and toddler nutrition, with extensive peer-reviewed research on childhood development, gender, and the impact of early life experiences.
Julie is the founder of Badger Publishing and known for her work supporting families through the early years with evidence-based, compassionate guidance.
Drawing on her professional expertise, her own challenging childhood, and her journey as a solo mother raising three boys in a gender-neutral, inclusive way, Julie brings both lived experience and academic rigour to her work.
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Caz Guard is a diversity advocate with a background in fostering inclusion and identity. As a mother in a blended family with her wife, two stepdaughters, and two sons, Caz brings lived experience of the many ways families are formed and celebrated. From her own experiences, she is championing the message of self-acceptance and pride in identity.
Why we created
these stories
What brought Julie and Caz together was a shared vision: to create something that would help children feel proud of who they are, right from the start.
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For Julie, this vision is rooted in both lived experience and academic research. She knows first-hand the complexities of special days, the lasting impact of representation in childhood, and the importance of giving children the tools to express themselves.
Her professional and personal paths came together in a mission to create stories that reflect every child’s right to belong.
These books are more than stories — they’re an invitation to see the world through a kinder, more open lens.
For Caz, this work is deeply personal. From navigating her own identity to raising a blended family, she understands the power of children seeing themselves reflected in the stories they read.
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The Pink Is Just a Colour series was born from real conversations, real questions, and the big feelings their own children — Arjun, Sahan, Ray, Lucas, and Theo — brought to the surface.
Together, Julie and Caz aim to create books that give children the language to express themselves, and the permission to be exactly who they are — an invitation to see the world through a kinder, more open lens, where every child feels they belong.
Meet the illustrator
Maya (she/they) is a Wellington-based artist and designer with a passion for story-telling.
They love to design characters and creatures that fit into the whimsical worlds they imagine. She loves to create playful work inspired by nature and history, from a queer and women-centric point of view.
Maya is currently working on her Master’s degree in Design at Massey University, looking into disability representation in video games.
When not engrossed in her studies, Maya likes to watch cartoons, read books, play video games, and of course, draw.
