Berna Datema

All her life Berna lives and works in the North of the Netherlands, near Alkmaar where she was born. She studied in Amsterdam and learned to be a highschool teacher in Art Illustrations and Textiles. Later on she followed lessons at the Vogue Academy for Fashion and became a repeat pattern and print designer. She worked in fashion for several years until she got married and had two children. She loved to draw for them and made up stories that she later on pitched to be published. Her wish came true when a publisher from Antwerp saw her first pitch about a family of slendertailed meerkats. This became her first picture book ever published and later on she made two more for the same publisher C. de Vries-Brouwers. She also illustrated so book covers for middle grade books and some black & white illustrations for another book.

About fifteen years ago she started to design for digital scrapbooking, which made her more allround and whilst doing that, she decided to illustrate more for children's books. Realizing that the market is changing rapidly and she ought to look for new ways te get published, she follows several e-courses by Zoe Tucker and Lilla Rogers, but also a lot of different courses at Domestika. She loves to develope characters like animals and children, but she also likes to draw portraits.

Besides illustrating her own stories, she is busy with her first picture book that's written by another author. She is very excited and can't wait to see the book for real. In the meantime she also makes other picture books & pitches. Berna also works in the Amsterdam airport, where she is a passenger's assistant.