Joanna
Joanna lost her mother to cancer at a young age. Years later, when she faced a cancer diagnosis of her own, something shifted.
Thankfully, her cancer was caught early and treated successfully.
After this incident, she began looking more closely at the products she'd been eating and using - learning about the ingredients inside them and how they were used. To her surprise, many of their ingredients came with questions about their safety and long-term use. Yet they appeared in almost everything she'd been eating and applying for years - even the expensive brands that she felt she should've been able to trust.
And she found herself wondering:
'What if her mother knew about this? What if she had access to safer and simpler products?'
She deepened her search for products she could feel good about using - learning more about individual ingredients, their effects, and why they were combined the way they were.
But instead of finding clear choices, she often found products that met her ingredient standards but didn't quite have the textures or scents she preferred. And when something did meet one of those preferences, it often fell short in another.
After enough trial and error, she began to wonder why she couldn't make her own.
And that's when the experimentation began.
Through countless prototypes, Joanna developed formulas rooted in clean and natural ingredients. With the help of both Houston and Don, those early formulas were further researched and developed alongside chemists and product manufacturers to help ensure they were thoughtfully made and ready to share more widely.
YANA was born.
A brand named in honor of her mother. A tribute, a legacy, and a way of creating safe, nourishing products not just for ourselves, but for the people we love.
No fillers. No harsh chemicals. And no noise.
Houston
Houston is fun-loving by nature - always ready to join the party but just as naturally attuned to logistics, systems, and making things work.
For most of his life, Houston trusted what Corporate America was selling — synthetic formulas, preservative-filled products, and the idea that convenience trumped everything else. It wasn't until he had a health crisis of his own that he stopped to question it all.
What followed was a deeper journey — one that led him across Asia and Europe, into communities that had never lost their connection to the earth, and ultimately back to himself.
He began to rethink everything: what he ate, what he used, and what he believed about wellness. That journey didn’t end when he came back home.
It became YANA.
As one of its founders, Houston holds the brand to a standard he measures against himself — clean, intentional, and rooted in something real.
Don
An artist at heart, Don has always been drawn to the way small moments can change how we feel.
A walk at sunrise.
The texture of light on skin.
The quiet of a place before anyone speaks.
For him, YANA began not only as a product, but as a question:
How do we help people feel more connected to the world around them?
As one of YANA’s founders, Don helps shape the visual world of the brand—the photography, films, stories, and observations that live throughout the Archive. His work is rooted in attention: to nature, to people, to ritual, and to the details that make something feel honest.
He sees YANA as more than skin and body care. To him, it is a way of practicing presence. A way of slowing down. A way of returning to nature not as an escape, but as a relationship.
Through the lens, through the written word, and through the quiet decisions behind the brand, Don helps document what restoration can look and feel like.
Not as something distant or dramatic.
But as something found in everyday moments.