Why Illustrator Alessandra Olanow Captures Our Hearts & Minds

Best-selling author and illustrator Alessandra Olanow, whose drawings and musings, shared on Instagram as @aolanow, have attracted a highly engaged community of 372K followers, including celebrities such as Katie Couric and Jennifer Garner. In 2019, dealing with a divorce, Alessandra started drawing her feelings at her kitchen table each morning, posting her illustrations and simple phrases to Instagram. The audience they generated led to her first book, I Used to Have a Plan which topped the Barnes & Noble bestseller list. Published by Harper Collins in 2020, and featuring more than 75 illustrations, the book chronicles the breakup of her marriage and her journey through pain and heartache towards self-love and acceptance. Alessandra is also an entrepreneur. She developed an all-over body oil called A.OK which can be purchased at feelingaok.com. Her new book, Hello Grief, in which she grapples with the death of her mother, will be published in late 2022.