If you’ve spent any time shopping at Sephora, you’ll notice something new, and it isn’t on the shelves. Browsing alongside you are tween girls, well-versed on the latest skincare and makeup trends dominating their TikTok screens. Tara Tersigni, founder of YAWN (yawn. world), a clean makeup brand made exclusively for these young experts, is aiming to meet them where they are.
For 10 years, Tersigni served as Bobbi Brown’s COO and was a co-founder of Jones Road. As they were developing the high-grade formulations, Tersigni became a self-described clean beauty warrior. “I became really passionate about clean beauty and food and cleaning up my whole lifestyle,” says Tersigni. She had two young daughters at the time who were interested in makeup and played around with products marketed to them. “I never thought about it until I did. I grabbed one of their palettes, flipped it over, looked at the ingredient list and was horrified. It sparked the idea for YAWN. The genesis was making the brand clean, fun and playful, but also real makeup and skincare products tailored for kids,” she says.
Since YAWN launched, Tersigni has continued to evolve the brand. She sees the Gen Alpha skincare and makeup obsession only growing stronger, and she wants to take time to position YAWN as more of a lifestyle concept without sacrificing her values or the quality. “The DNA isn’t going to change. It’s rooted in confidence. We’ll still maintain clean ingredients and sustainable packaging, but it’s aging up a bit,” she says. Tersigni has also been hard at work developing another clean cosmetics brand with a celebrity makeup artist, which will be launching next year.
