We're Khalid and Patricia, the parents behind Darijaty. We got married young — I was 23, Patricia was 20. Our daughter came soon later, and we found ourselves doing something most new parents don't do alone: no grandparents down the street, no village, no one to hand her to when we were exhausted. Just the two of us, figuring it out.

Khalid wrote the stories and translated everything into Darija. Patricia illustrated every page by hand on her iPad. I built the website. No agency, no team, no outsourcing — just the two of us, doing for other diaspora families what we couldn't find for our own. That's how Ali was born: a little boy who tidies his room, learns to talk, goes to the doctor, and slowly, story by story, grows up learning Darija and learning about life at the same time.