Mariah Carey has announced plans to write a series of children's books.

Following in the footsteps of fellow diva Madonna, Carey will publish a series of illustrated children's tales following the life a bi-racial orphan girl.

Entitled Automatic Princess, the stories will be based upon her own experiences growing up as part of a mixed-race family, reports MTV.

She explained: "The way I do things, I need to be involved. I wouldn't just be like, 'Here's a concept, go run with it.'

"It's still something I really want to do, and I'm going to do, and I'm going to start getting that into production soon."