Lies Lavrijsen holds a degree in Romance languages (French and Italian) and has been working as a translator of children’s books and young adult literature for several years. She has been nominated for the IBBY Honour List 2018 for her translation of Frida, a crossover picture book about Mexican artist Frida Kahlo by Sébastien Perez and Benjamin Lacombe. She has always been passionately in love with the Italian language and literature and hopes that more young Italian authors will be discovered by Dutch publishers as a result of the CELA project.