Terms of Service

What we provide

Hero of You creates personalized storybooks: you upload a photo of the person the book is about, a child or a grown-up, and our AI-based engine writes and illustrates a story starring them. You can preview the book for free; if you love it, you can buy a digital edition or a printed keepsake (softcover or hardcover) delivered by our print partner. These Terms are the agreement between you and Hero of You for using the website and service.

Who can use Hero of You

You can browse and preview as a guest, or create an account with an email and password or with Google. You are responsible for your account and for keeping your sign-in details private.

You must be at least 18 (or the age of majority where you live) to make a purchase. The service is intended for adults - it is not directed to children, and children should not create accounts or upload photos themselves.

Your photos and content

You confirm that everyone in a photo you upload has agreed to be in the book, and that for any child you are their parent or legal guardian or have the parent or guardian's explicit permission.

You keep all rights to the photos you upload. You grant us the limited, non-exclusive license we need to draw the illustrated character from the photo - nothing more. We generate the artwork using an external AI provider (Google Gemini), we train no model of our own, and we do not sell or share your photo. The photo is deleted automatically seven days after you upload it; the book itself is made from the illustration, not the photo (see the Privacy Policy).

The personalized book we generate for you is yours to read, download, print and keep for personal, non-commercial use.

Acceptable use

Upload a photo of an adult only with that adult's permission - family stories include grown-ups by design, and the person adding them confirms that permission for each one. Never upload photos of other people's children without their parent's permission, or any content that is unlawful, infringing, hateful or harmful.

Do not resell or commercially exploit the books, misuse the service, attempt to disrupt or reverse-engineer it, scrape it, or use it to generate content that violates these Terms or the law.

We may remove content, and suspend or close accounts, that break these rules.

AI-generated content

Stories and illustrations are generated by AI, personalized to the details you provide. Generation is creative by nature: small artifacts or variations can appear, which is exactly why the free preview exists - so you can check the book before paying. Regenerating pages you are not happy with is part of the product.

Orders, prices and payment

Prices are shown in US dollars at checkout and may change over time; the price you see when you pay is the price you pay. Applicable taxes, and shipping for printed books, are shown before you confirm.

Payments are processed by Stripe. We never see or store your card number. Placing an order is an offer to buy; the order is confirmed once payment succeeds.

Delivery and printing

Digital editions are available immediately after payment. Printed books are produced on demand by our print partner (Gelato) and shipped to the address you provide.

Nothing goes to our print partner until you approve it. Production and delivery estimates shown at checkout run from the date you APPROVE your book, not the date you pay.

Approval, cancellation and refunds

Each book is made to your specification for the people named in it and cannot be resold, so we do not offer refunds for a change of mind. Before you approve, we will regenerate anything that is not right; nothing is printed until you approve it. Once you approve, production begins and the order cannot be cancelled.

That does not affect our promise to reprint a book that arrives damaged, misprinted, not as approved, or not at all, and it does not affect your statutory rights. Full detail is in our Refund Policy, which forms part of these Terms.

Intellectual property and what you get

The website, the story engine, templates, sample art, our name, logo and branding are owned by Hero of You and protected by law. These Terms do not give you any right to our brand or technology beyond using the service as intended.

When you buy a book we grant you a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive licence to read, download, print, keep and give away that book for personal, family and non-commercial use. You keep all rights in the photo you upload.

Because the story text and illustrations are generated by AI, copyright may not exist in parts of the output at all in some countries - including the United States - so we do not promise you exclusive rights in your book, and we cannot prevent another customer’s book resembling yours.

Consumer rights and digital content

Nothing in these Terms limits any statutory right you have where you live, and where these Terms conflict with those rights, those rights win.

For digital editions, delivery begins immediately after payment: at checkout you ask us to supply your book straight away and confirm that the 14-day change-of-mind cancellation right ends once delivery begins. Your rights if something is wrong with the book are unaffected.

For printed books the 14-day change-of-mind cancellation right does not apply, because each book is clearly personalised to the people named in it - see the Refund Policy.

Quality and availability

We work hard to keep the service running and to make every book good, but we cannot promise the website will always be available or error-free, and AI generation is creative by nature - which is exactly why you preview before you pay and approve before we print.

We do not exclude any implied warranty or statutory guarantee that the law does not allow us to exclude.

Limitation of liability

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be excluded - including the consumer guarantees under the Australian Consumer Law, your rights under the New Zealand Consumer Guarantees Act 1993, your rights under the UK Consumer Rights Act 2015, and equivalent rights where you live.

Subject to that, and to the fullest extent the law allows, our total liability for any claim connected with an order is limited to what you paid for that order, and we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss.

Your responsibility to us

If someone brings a claim against us because you uploaded a photo you did not have the right to use, you agree to cover our reasonable direct losses and legal costs in dealing with that claim. This does not apply to anything caused by our own fault, and nothing here affects your statutory rights.

Third-party services

We rely on trusted providers to run the service - including Stripe (payments), Gelato (printing and shipping) and Google (AI generation). Their own terms and policies apply to the parts they provide.

Suspension and termination

You can stop using the service and delete your account at any time. We may suspend or close accounts that breach these Terms or the law, or where required to protect the service or other users.

Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the United States and of the state where Hero of You is established, without regard to conflict-of-law rules, and the courts with jurisdiction there will handle any dispute - except where the mandatory consumer law of your home country gives you additional protection. (Your qualified counsel should confirm the exact governing law and venue for your entity.)

Changes and contact

We may update these Terms as the product evolves; material changes will be reflected on this page with a new "last updated" date. Questions? Write to shushanran@gmail.com.