Building a Cartoon Avatar Generator with Google AI Studio

This post is my submission for DEV Education Track: Build Apps with Google AI Studio.

What I Built

I set out to build a single-page React web app that generates personalized cartoon avatars from simple text descriptions. The key prompt I used was: “Build a React app that converts user descriptions like ‘young woman with glasses and curly hair’ into cartoon-style avatars with bold outlines and clean lines.” I automatically enhanced prompts with styling instructions, such as “cartoon style, bold outlines, simple shapes, expressive facial features,” and added features for background color selection and accessory options. The app utilizes the Imagen API for image generation and features native Web Share functionality for seamless sharing.

Demo

Cartoon Avatar Generator right now, I don't have the budget to deploy/share production ready app.

Github Link

My Experience

This project is the perfect example of how AI can accelerate creative web development. I learned the importance of prompt engineering—specifically how adding detailed styling instructions improved image quality dramatically. The Imagen API delivered fast, professional-looking results that matched the prompt perfectly. Adding user customization for backgrounds and accessories made the app feel more personal and engaging. Implementing native Web Share was surprisingly straightforward and added great usability.

Overall, this experience showed me how modern AI tools and web APIs can turn ideas into polished apps quickly and efficiently.