Minerva Paradizo is a twelve-year-old girl, described with tight blonde corkscrew curls and glasses (although the glasses are only mentioned once, so it is possible that they are either reading glasses or sunglasses) and is described as quite attractive (at least to Artemis Fowl). She was born in Cagnes-sur-Mer, South of France, and her father Gaspard Paradizo is a fifty-two-year-old cosmetic surgeon of Brazilian descent. She also has a five-year-old brother, Beau Paradizo, who has quite a love for sweets, chocolate in particular. Her mother, whose name is unknown, left her family and ran off with the gardener about a year before the events in The Lost Colony.