A Filipino story,
a friend to hold.
Meet Ningning the sarimanok, the Filipino bird of good fortune. Read her story in the language you choose, with Tagalog woven through and a soft toy of her to hold long after the last page. First shipments Q4 2026.
A piece of home your child can hold
Not just any toy, any story. A piece of who they are. Made real, made for every day, made to keep.
Truly Filipino
The real sarimanok, with its okir motifs, the fish and its colors, not a generic bird in a costume. Drawn by a Filipino illustrator, story inspired from the sarimanok’s origins and reputation of bringing good fortune and abundance.
For every day
Culture they live inside, not something saved for Pasko or a trip home. The story they hear at night and the friend they carry by day, there before they’re old enough to be taught, so they absorb it the way they absorb your voice.
Made to keep
Right for their age now, and built to survive all the “where is Ningning”. Carried everywhere, sometimes dropped, read 100 times. The kind of thing they keep and come back to. Not something that ages out in a season.
A Filipino bird your child will grow up knowing
The sarimanok is a bird of good fortune from the Maranao people of the southern Philippines and one of the most beloved figures in Filipino folklore, carried in its brilliant colours.
In our story, Ningning is born plain, and earns each feather by sharing her luck: sending a child soaring to reach the pabitin, multiplying the food far too much so no one goes home hungry, letting a friend take the win. It’s the idea we want our children to grow up inside. That good fortune isn’t something you’re given, it’s something you make and pass on.
We’re giving the sarimanok a new home: in the pages your child falls asleep to, and the soft toy they wake up reaching for.
Choose what's right for you
The book, the soft toy, or the set. So we build the right thing, not everything.
The Book
Ningning’s story, in the language you choose. Read it in English, Tagalog, French, German, Spanish or Italian. The Tagalog words are woven through either way, repeated and echoed until your child starts saying them back to you.
Book + Soft Toy
The Filipino bird of good fortune, gift-boxed. The present a nanay, ninong, or lola actually wants to give at a baby shower, a first Pasko, or just because. The sarimanok you read about at night is the one they hug by day.
The Soft Toy
Ningning on her own. The white sarimanok who earned her colours, bright and characterful and unmistakably Filipino. Made to be held, hugged, and carried long after the book is closed.
Product images are for illustration only. The final product may differ.
Where we’re at
Saya isn't pulled off a shelf. We work with a Filipino illustrator, meet makers in person, and listen to diaspora families like yours at every step. Here's where we are.
Production
First run, tested for real: washed, dropped, read a hundred times
Preparation and validation
Research, prototypes, and conversations with Filipino families across Europe. Listening before building.
Production
First run, tested for real: washed, dropped, read a hundred times
First shipments
The first books and plushies reach your door. Waitlist families ship first.
Proud to be Filipino, wherever you grow up
I'm Lorena, a Filipina mom raising my daughter far from the Philippines, with my husband Quentin, her French dad. We went looking for a Filipino book she'd actually love, in a language we could both read, and couldn't find one. So we're making it.
Saya is for that. For the parent who can't pass on what they can't find. For the lola who wants to give something real. For the child who deserves to grow up knowing this is Filipino, it's part of who I am, and it's wonderful.