Leigh Hedstrom is a freelance illustrator who lives on the Sunshine Coast with her family. She grew up in South Africa, drawing every day and dreaming that one day she might become a Disney animator. In the early 2000s, hand-drawn animation studios all around the world closed their doors, so she had to find the next best thing, which turned out to be the actual best thing - illustration. What Leigh loves about illustrating is being able to work across a bunch of different industries: publishing (books), education (workbooks, teaching aids and videos), advertising, and more recently, product development (toys). She also gets to work with amazingly talented people, like Tanya Hennessy.

The Stevie Louise books have become a favourite project, because it's not often that Leigh gets to draw the same characters many times … Stevie, Alex, Trixie, Addison, Macey, Luke and Hannah have crept into her heart and become like real people to her. Leigh enjoys the perks of a work-from-home job, such as the privacy to sing showtunes whilst working, having a cat within arms reach and eating lunch from a plate.