Yaroslava Apollonova, or Yara for short, is an author-illustrator, full time cat mom and character designer based in Berlin, Germany.

She loves creating diverse characters to show kids it's awesome to be exactly who they are and never give up on their dreams, just like beavers, when trying to build a dam despite all the challenges.

When Yara isn’t drawing, you can find her baking white chocolate chip cookies, drinking coffee before bed, having deep conversations with her cats, Ciri and Nala, and gathering new ideas for illustrations from documentaries at 3 am. You can even find her doing all of that while drawing too, though.