Meet Yawn, a Psychedelic Accessory Brand Providing Education and Better Trips

Ready for a trip?

Yawn is a psychedelic accessories and education brand, founded by Maddalen Pasini, that is looking to end the stigma around hallucinogenics and amplify people’s trips. The brand has a line of clothing, referred to as Sporewear; a mind-expanding card game called Warped; a mushroom stash bag that prevents exposure to light, heat and moisture, and a robust education section on the website.

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Yawn was born out of Pasini’s personal experience with psychedelics.

“I’ve been self exploring with psychedelics for over 15 years and there was just such a lack of education,” she said. “There’s so much stigma, and for me and all the people around me, I’ve noticed such a big change in their lives and my personal life and my personal growth.”

After moving to Vancouver, Pasini, a longtime publicist, discovered that psychedelics were less taboo and that people were using them in different ways like microdosing as an alcohol replacement. With this in mind, she began to brainstorm what she could possibly build in the space.

“Yawn was born and it wasn’t even meant to be a brand. Originally I was like, ‘OK, do I create a superfood mushroom chocolate brand?’ but I didn’t want to promote something illegal. I wanted to get the message out there,” she said, adding that education was always top of mind for her. “[The] better way to do that is to obviously operate on the legal side of things and create products that would allow people to open up conversations in their own community about mushrooms.”

Pasini also noticed that cannabis had always had a strong culture and lifestyle component. She wanted to do the same with psychedelics.

With this ethos in mind, Pasini first developed clothing including hoodies, beanies, hats, sweatpants and T-shirts with Yawn’s logo or a mushroom symbol. Celebrities, like Diplo, have been known to sport Yawn merchandise. Sales from this merchandise supports the Heffter Research Institute, a nonprofit that studies psychedelics.

“We believe in the research and the reason we chose to donate our clothing sales to Heffter is because they are psilocybin specific,” Pasini said. “They’re not just focused on solely medical stuff. They’re also focused on some of the spiritual and personal growth stuff that’s happening with psilocybin.”

The name Yawn was also intentional in further educating consumers on psychadelics. Typically, users will yawn when coming up on a trip.

“We wanted to rebrand what these words meant, like Yawn. Being tired, sleepy, bored, that’s what people associate it with, but when you’re yawning on psychedelics, [you’re] actually waking up and expanding your consciousness,” Pasini said.

While the ideation for Yawn started about five years ago, it is now just finding its footing with its Warped game, which started out as a Kickstarter campaign and is now in official production mode — it will be available at Urban Outfitters starting in July. The game’s goal? To ask the user mind-expanding, trippy questions to either accompany a trip or be played any time. Pasini was inspired by the massive popularity of card games, like Cards Against Humanity. Warped is very similar as it’s a simple question and answer game with some fun wild cards.

“It’s a game that is trying to encompass psychedelics as a state of mind,” she said. “People are obviously going to be doing psychedelics on their own, but what kind of tool can we give them so it can be a positive experience? They can create ritual with their friends. They can build community, and I strongly believe that through my 15 years of experience that laughter with friends, humor, being silly and being extremely weird and creative was such a large part of my personal healing journey. That’s where the game came from.”

In addition to the merchandise, Pasini is looking to double down on education through masterclasses on the brand’s website and collaborative events. For example, Yawn previously partnered with Secular Sabbath, which hosts multisensory, healing experiences, on an event. For the event, Pasini created Trip Kits filled with an educational guide, chocolate and tea.

In July, Yawn will be doubling down on its mission launching its “Introduction to Psychedelics Mini Course” that will be available on the site for a discounted price after the live session and will be an ongoing series for the brand. Pasini also has a lot of plans in the pipeline, including partnerships with celebrities and brands, hosting events specifically for the game and eventually a Yawn retreat.

“There’s a lot that we can do,” she said. “Not actually selling anything illegal…allows us to partner with people, artists and brands outside of the psychedelic space. That’s going to be a large part of the future of Yawn, partnering with large scale household name brands. The game will eventually become a household game.…The power is in the community, and being able to reach a mass audience is the goal.”