A Potty for Zaza

About Mylo Freeman

Mylo Freeman was born in The Hague Holland from Dutch/American parents. She attended art school for about five years (painting) and after that she moved to New York. Lived and worked there for a couple of years and was part of a group exhibition at The Drawing Center Gallery in New York. But eventually homesickness brought her back to Amsterdam. Around this time she started her musical career which resulted in a CD. However the stage did not prove to be artistically satisfying so she returned to the visual Arts. This time Mylo started working for magazines and commercial advertising. After the birth of her son David (1994) she started to make drawings for children and he became the big inspiration for all the books to come. First published book was Potty! in 1997. It in turn inspired David to give up his diapers and use the potty! This book also won her the Kiekebookprize in 1998 a prize given out by Dutch national libraries for best toddler book of the year. Now Mylo has published over 60 books. When she was a kid there was nothing she enjoyed more than turning her room into a big playground for all her dolls and cuddly toys. So you can imagine that creating a character like Zaza came naturally. Now Zaza has become her favorite character and is loved by toddlers around the world! At the moment Mylo lives in Amsterdam with her husband and three children.