“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 Bikini Ireland and “it all took off from there”.
She entered the Rose of Tralee this year, but hit a setback when she was taken ill and hospitalised, only to bounce back to enter Miss Glamour Ireland, the finals of which will be taking place in March, 2025. “It is tough,” Lauren conceded, commenting on being suddenly exposed to the public. “You're getting abuse, you're getting told, ‘Oh, you can't be doing this’.
Other people would say fair play to you, other people would be jealous. It's not an easy road, it's a hard road. But you do get talked about and you're going to get told you're bad at whatever you do.
That’s life. That's the way the world's come to. “But when I took up modelling I was told I shouldn't be doing it.
But if we want to do it, and we can show other girls it's achievable, then why not?" The pressure to conform and to look a certain way is another aspect of the industry that weighs heavily but Lauren believed you have to be your own person or collapse under the weight of all that expectation. Her message for young girls, whether they want to model or not, is to remain authentic to your own needs and trust in yourself. “I don't go out with my makeup plastered on me.
I don't do that, even when I go to photographers. You don't have to wear makeup to be beautiful. I've gotten negative comments, I've gotten attacks, but whatever I want to do with my life, I can do, and I stand my ground for it.
It's very competitive. The biggest thing I'd advise is just not take anyone else's opinion. Don't let anyone else bring you down, because some people have a setback once, or get one bad opinion, and they just quit everything.
And that's your whole life. That's your whole career.” Model Lauren Whelehan.
On the perception that glamour models don’t necessarily make the best role models, she said: “I don't understand that, we're not going out naked. We're modelling in clothes. Some people think that it's like porn, basically.
And I don't know if that sounds horrible, but that's how some people are looking at it. It's not like that at all, we're modelling clothes, we're modelling bikinis, we're modelling underwear. And Miss Glamour Ireland isn't just about underwear and bikinis, it's about glamorous dresses as well.
” For Lauren to really keep the dream alive, what she needs now are “sponsors”, they’re the difference between earning a living and having a viable career. And she is grafting away that now, hoping to land a brand. “There's sponsors now I'm trying to look for, clothing brands and stuff like that, so they can provide you with clothes to go to the shoots.
If you get sponsorships like that, then you'll be fine, you'll have your clothes for life, you'll have your sponsorships there to help you with shoots, so that's my next step. "Social media is constant,” she added. “Every single day I wake up, I have to have something.
There's newspapers in New York I've gotten into, magazines and all that. So every single day I wake up, I have to keep going with stuff on social media, to be seen, and try to get seen by better and bigger people.” In the background of course, is her little boy, Logan, who is now almost nine years old and needs a lot of care and attention as he is non-verbal.
He is still attending Marino School and has some respite care also, so things are "falling into place for him and his needs”. “It’s tough,” Lauren said. “So that's why I'm trying to just tell everyone that it is possible, I have an autistic child and I still can do it.
Believe in your dreams, It's hard work along the way and it doesn't just fall into your lap. You have to fight for where you want to get to, but there's steps to get there if you really want to do it.”.
