How to turn your childhood photo into a personalised storybook with Nano Banana Pro

A surge of nostalgia is sweeping across social media as users experiment with Google’s latest AI tool, Nano Banana Pro, which transforms childhood photographs into fully illustrated storybooks. What started as a playful trial has quickly evolved into a global online trend, with people sharing creative reinterpretations of their younger selves as storybook characters placed in whimsical worlds, from enchanted forests and futuristic skylines to underwater kingdoms.

To begin, users must visit the Gemini website or download the app and log in using their Google credentials. They must then select Thinking with 3 Pro as the model of choice before navigating to the Tools menu and selecting the Create images option. This enables them to upload a childhood photo and instantly generate an illustrated storybook-style transformation.

Nano Banana Pro is described by Google as a state-of-the-art model for both image generation and editing. Built on the Gemini 3 Pro platform, it utilises the system’s reasoning abilities and real-world knowledge to convert information into rich visual output. Beyond simple image generation, it is also capable of producing context-heavy content such as infographics and diagrams based on the material supplied by the user.

Users are experimenting widely with prompts to expand the tool’s capabilities.

Sample prompt one: Analyze this image and then create a timeline of the events that led to this picture; make a storyboard like it was a motion picture, 9-x storyboard grid, events in the series, storyboard creation, and each sequence is in order.

Sample prompt two similarly requests an examination of the image, followed by the creation of a cinematic storyboard in a nine-panel grid that captures each key moment building up to the photographed scene.