The Mimicking Octopus: A Journey to True Self — now coming to life through original animation. Emotional resilience, authenticity, and wonder, told through the world's most extraordinary octopus.
By Alon Braun — marine biologist, entrepreneur, founder of DialogPlace, and author of The Entrepreneur's Journey.
An original animated adaptation of The Mimicking Octopus — currently in development for film. Watch the first glimpse.
In a world that constantly asks children to become someone else, the Mimicking Octopus carries a single, life-changing truth:
You are enough.
How to understand difficult feelings and move through them with grace.
The difference between adapting to the world and pretending to be someone else.
How values shape identity — and why integrity matters from the very beginning.
Helping children discover the quiet, unshakable value they already carry.
A gentle introduction to mindfulness, wonder, and the search for deeper meaning.
Trying on different roles to understand others — without ever losing yourself.
The Mimicking Octopus can become anything — a sea snake, a lionfish, a flatfish. But when it looks into the mirror, it discovers something far more valuable than camouflage: the courage to be itself.
The real creature
Meet the Mimicking Octopus
I didn't just imagine the octopus. I traveled to the Philippines on a personal expedition to find the real creature that inspired this story — one of the most mysterious animals in the ocean.
Watch the real underwater expedition behind the book.
Real underwater footage · Philippines
Alon Braun combines science, storytelling, emotional wisdom, and entrepreneurship to help children — and adults — better understand themselves. His work explores how transformation, adaptation, and authenticity shape human growth.
Peer-reviewed research
Calcification in hermatypic corals is based on direct seawater supply to the biomineralization site
2007 · with J. Erez
Trace Elements in Foraminiferal and Coral Calcium Carbonate in View of Their Biomineralization Mechanisms
2006 · with Erez, Bentov, de Beer et al.
Preliminary Observations on Sea Water Utilization During Calcification in Scleractinian Corals
2004 · with J. Erez
A picture book for children — and a quiet reminder for the parents who read it aloud — that the truest thing you can ever be is yourself.
Stories and ideas for every stage of life — from childhood resilience to the creative process of building something meaningful.
New videos, parenting insights, and future expeditions — sent occasionally, never noisily.
