“I just wanted to share my story with other girls” she said, “just to shine light on it, that it's possible” Lauren Whelehan, and her son, Logan, in 2020. Four years ago, Bray mum Lauren Whelehan was living in her parents' home, alternating between a bed and a sofa with her sister in the three-bedroom house, holding out to reach the top of a housing list that she had been for five years. Lauren was living under the same roof as her four-year-old son, who had been diagnosed with autism, her four siblings, her parents and her sister's child – nine people in total, and that was in the middle of the lockdowns.
She had enrolled for courses and was working in the post office three days a week to earn an income, but her real dream, which must have seemed a proper pipe dream back then, was to pursue modelling. Now, four years later, Lauren, who has turned 30, has managed to secure a home of her own from the council and despite the odds is on her way to becoming a full-time model. “I just wanted to share my story with other girls” she said, “just to shine light on it, that it's possible.
You can do it, you can achieve your dreams." Model Lauren Whelehan. Looking back at the year 2020, when a bleak and uncertain future lay ahead, Lauren recalls going from work in the post office to a print works, renting a place to live with her son, before finally securing a council home, steadily keeping the dream alive until a break came last year when she was accepted for Miss Bikin.