(CEO/founder Ali O’Grady | Photos courtesy of Thoughtful Human)
Ali O’Grady has always been passionate about helping her community and having honest conversations. Back in 2006, she was championing climate change awareness, which brought her to UC Santa Cruz. She learned that there are many people who have those sciences under control at an expert level, and decided to shift her area of focus towards psychology.
Near the same time, O’Grady lost a very important person in her life; her father, who had spent the last decade battling with cancer.
“I’m not sure how everyone deals with grief, but it changed me profoundly,” she said. “It left me with so many questions about the emotional journey he went through, and I thought about all the conversations about fear, mortality, and life after death that could have been had if we had the right words.”
O’Grady said she saw this happening in other aspects of her life, and with family and friends going through their own struggles. In dealing with her own grief, she said it felt like no one knew how to touch it, and this contributed to her feeling alone and isolated.
“I began to feel this growing awareness that people wanted to show up and be there for me, but they lacked the vocab or knowhow required to get the conversation going,” O’Grady said.
O’Grady founded Thoughtful Human in 2017 to help people find honest ways to communicate in complex relationships and challenging circumstances like these.
“To me, Thoughtful Human represents our shared struggle to love, fight, grieve, forgive, overcome, and celebrate — even in some of our darkest moments,” said O’Grady. “It’s accepting and de-stigmatizing our differences and meeting our loved ones where they’re at. It’s being there — consistently — when it really counts, and leading these difficult conversations with kindness.”
Thoughtful Human offers cards for all kinds of tough situations, including cancer diagnoses, addiction recovery, dealing with grief after losing a loved one, and more. They have cards that illustrate the stress we feel during the holidays, and cards that deal with relationship issues with quotes like, “thanks for loving me enough to deal with my family.”
With a background in climate justice, O’Grady wanted to make sure her brand was sustainable, from the ground up. That is why Thoughtful Human operates with a zero-waste, plastic free philosophy. In addition to sustainable packaging and materials, the cards themselves contain wildflower seeds that can be planted by following some simple instructions that can be found on their website. These seeds are all non-GMO and also tested by a 3rd party lab to ensure they are free of noxious weeds.
In recent years, their product line has expanded to include everyday cards like birthdays, anniversaries and more, still with the trademark Thoughtful Human style and honesty.
It is important to O’Grady to help people find resources, which is why she is pushing to partner with organizations and nonprofits that can help people on their healing journeys, because as O’Grady said, “The cards are not the solution, but the catalyst for change, conversation and healing.”
Looking to the future, O’Grady wants to focus on more intentional growth, prioritizing the local PNW market.
