THE WORLD OF
Grieflandia is a world of characters that helps people understand and process grief by giving shape to the many thoughts, feelings, and experiences that may come after loss.
What is Grieflandia’
Grief is not linear. It is not a checklist to be worked through. Grief is its own world of emotions, thoughts, and experiences. The world of grief has ever-changing terrain and weather; there are no maps. Everyone makes their own way, and that way may be different with each loss.
Grieflandia is a way of seeing the world of grief through cute characters who represent its certainties, the many feelings, thoughts, and reactions that can arise after loss, and practices that may help soothe.
Why Grieflandia Exists’
Many grief resources exist in long-form formats that can be difficult to follow and process while in the throes of grief. People experiencing grief often ask: Is this normal? Why do I feel this way? How do I make sense of what I am experiencing?
Grieflandia was created to offer a more compelling and accessible way to make some sense of grief.
Instead of searching for the right words, people can recognize their experiences visually through characters that reflect the many ways grief may present. This approach helps people better understand what they are experiencing, make sense of it, and recognize that many responses to loss are a natural part of grief.
Who Lives In Grieflandia’
Grieflandia is made up of different types of characters who represent the wide range of experiences that can appear in grief.
Griefies represent the thoughts, feelings, reactions, and experiences that often show up after loss.
Helpies offer practices and actions that people may find helpful as they navigate grief.
Certainties reflect three enduring truths that remain even when everything else feels uncertain.
Together, these characters create a way of seeing and exploring grief as it is — dynamic, layered, and deeply personal.
Why Characters Help’
Grief can be difficult to understand, especially when emotions feel unfamiliar, contradictory, or constantly changing.
By giving these experiences form, characters help people:
recognize what they are feeling
identify experiences that are hard to name
talk about grief more easily with others
understand that multiple emotions can exist at the same time
Instead of explaining grief in abstract terms, Grieflandia allows people to encounter it in a more tangible way.
The Creator
of Grieflandia
Jennifer A. O’Brien’s understanding of grief is deeply personal. She created Grieflandia because grief is something she has experienced many times over. When she was 18, her only sibling died following a motor vehicle accident. In the years since, her mother, father, and husband have also died.
She can tell you that the grief following the loss of her brother was different from the grief she experienced after the deaths of her parents, and the loss of her husband brought yet another grief experience. Through these losses, she came to understand that not only is every person’s grief different, but each loss can create an entirely different grief experience within the same person.
After allowing the art journal she created while caring for her dying husband to be published as a book, Jennifer began helping people navigate caregiving, end-of-life preparation, and grief. An author, educator, advocate, and former healthcare CEO, her work focuses on improving death literacy by supporting family caregivers, encouraging meaningful end-of-life preparation, advocating for comprehensive after-loss services, and helping people better understand grief.
Jennifer wanted to make grief literacy more compelling and approachable through visual appeal — color, character, and even cuteness. Because thoughts, feelings, and reactions can appear, disappear, shift, and return unexpectedly, the colorful visual effort evolved into unique characters who can interact or stand alone. This became one of the foundational ideas behind Grieflandia: assigning adorable little characters to many of grief’s experiences demonstrates that grief has many faces.
She created the characters within Grieflandia not to simplify grief, but to reflect its changing and deeply variable nature. Her hope is that they help people recognize what they are feeling, find language for experiences that can be difficult to describe, and realize they are not alone in them.