Gloria Tesch (born April 17, 1994), who also uses pseudonyms "Sofia Nova" and "Goldilocks", is an American author, musical artist, YouTube influencer, glamour model, travel vlogger and actress.
Gloria is best-known for her Maradonia Saga series, a group of seven genre fantasy books that she released as a minor child in the late 2000s, using a vanity press called Liberty Press partly funded by her father, Günter Tesch (who changed his name to Gerry Tesch upon immigrating to America). Gerry used large amounts of money from various sources to promote Gloria's work, framing his daughter as "the world's youngest novelist" by staging fake celebrity book signings, sneaking copies of the books onto library shelves and into bookstores, and buying space for Gloria on a Floridian public access television station. The Maradonia books were largely panned by critics, appear on Goodreads' "Crap of the Crop: Worst Self-Published Books" list, and were the subject of an investigative YouTube video
revealing how funds were misappropriated in the making of a film adaptation of the Maradonia books, which had put the Tesch family into bankruptcy. Little is known of Gloria Tesch's private life as a person. Her mother, Marina Terkulova, is an illustrator who painted all of the illustrations and cover art on all of her daughter's published books.
Gloria's career post-Maradonia has largely become dependent on various side-hustles in the digital gig economy. Having pulled all of her Maradonia books from print, Gloria now self-publishes fantasy novels under the pen name "Sofia Nova", her "debut" being The Secret of Moon Lake, a mermaid-themed fantasy adventure book. She also wrote a picture book called The Crocodile Who Didn't Brush His Teeth in 2021, which her mother also illustrated; the book was quickly pulled out of print. She sings rap, pop and hip hop under the name "Goldilocks", most notably her song "3 Bears", uploads travel vlogs and longboarding videos to her YouTube channel NOVA TV, and acted in two short films: A Place for Lily and The House. She also played main character Maya in the feature film adaptation of her book, Maradonia and the Shadow Empire. Gerry Tesch had also gotten Gloria briefly involved in glamour modelling as a teenager.
