Full Name: Lauren Grace Cohen

Nickname: Ren

Gender: Female

Age: 16

Sexuality: Pansexual

Physical Appearance: Ren has shoulder-length, dark hair, with light brown tips. It's thick and slightly wavy, and as a result, is easily knotted. To avoid tangles, she'll often wear it in a double french braid. Her skin is warmly tanned and freckled all over, but rough and prone to drying. The features on her circle-shaped face aren't remarkable or unique, and they wouldn't stand out in a crowd. Her nose is slightly upturned, she has thick, arched eyebrows, her eyes are deep set and round. Ren has barely noticeable heterochromia. One of her eyes is hazel, the other is blue. Her shoulders are wide and round, and her figure is curvy and muscular. She has long legs and long arms, and which are good for swimming. Ren is 5''7, and weighs 139 lbs. She also has a slight overbite, which used to be much more severe, but was mostly repaired by two and a half years of braces. Her eyelashes are long and thick, but Ren has a habit of tugging on loose ones when she is nervous. 

Personality: Never will you meet someone as stubborn as Lauren Grace Cohen. Once she makes up her mind, it is impossible to change it.  That comes with its pros and its cons. On one hand, it can make her quite difficult to get along with. On the other hand, it makes her an endearingly and passionately loyal friend. Ren is very athletic and loves, more than anything, to swim. She works incredibly hard at it, every single day. When she is 18, Ren hopes to compete as an Olympic swimmer, but she knows that it won't come easily. Ren also doesn't give up. Not on swimming, not on schoolwork, not on her friends. If she's started something, she'll finish it.  No questions asked. She is somewhat reckless and impulsive, her mouth moving faster than her brain, sometimes jumping into situations before she has a plan to get out of them. But Ren is a good listener, and wears her heart on her sleeve. She's sensitive and courageous, never afraid to stick up for herself or others. Inside, she can actually be very sweet and gentle, even though she seems tough outside. Her sense of humor is sarcastic and deadpan, and she loves to make people laugh. In school, Ren struggles. She works insanely hard, but often doesn't understand the material as well as her classmates. Her intelligence, while plentiful, doesn't come academically. And while she tries to play it off like she is alright with that, Ren's self-esteem is secretly plummeting. Her heart is in everything that she does, but it's not making her feel happy. She wears a happy face, always telling herself that this is normal. After all, she's a teenager, and every teenager struggles with their own self-esteem. However, it's getting worse and worse and she tells herself that she'll never be good enough, and that the only person who can help her is herself, when really, she does need help. 

Likes: Swimming! It's her favorite activity in the whole world. Her friends, of course, who always give her a fun time. Laughing at her own jokes, no matter how much it annoys anyone else. Playing the guitar. When she was eleven, she taught herself, and now it's a secret pleasure of her own. Watching movies. Not TV shows. Ren doesn't enjoy TV shows, but movies? Absolutely. And anything scary. Horror movies. Horror novels. The longer that she can't sleep, the better. She loves the thrill of getting absolutely terrified. And Ren loves taking risks. A thirst for danger runs through her veins. Anything dangerous is perfect. Her favorite foods are cucumbers, grilled chicken, and donuts. She has an obsession with nature, and being outside. Often, Ren will volunteer at a local animal shelter, or offer to clean up the beach a few miles away from her house. She adores the earth, and is determined to save it. 

Dislikes: As mentioned before, Ren hates TV shows. She also doesn't like airplanes, or when people disagree with her. Even if they do, they have to have valid reasons, and they have to finish the argument. There is nothing that Ren hates more than an interrupted or unfinished argument. It will drive her insane. When people say bad things about her family or friends. It will put her in a state of raging madness. Ren also doesn't like her own body, or her own brain. When she looks in the mirror, she hates everything about her own body. And her grades tend to slip in school, which convinces her that she's stupid. It drives her insane, that no matter how hard she works to fix her body and her brain, she always feels like there is nothing that she can do about it. 

Fears: Airplanes. They are THE WORST. Ren will do anything to avoid getting on a death machine like that. Everyone tells her just sleep through the flight, but she can't relax. What about it is she afraid of? All of it. From the moment she walks into the airport to the moment she walks out.  She also fears-well, maybe not fears, but dreads when global warming will melt the last ice cap. Everything that's slowly destroying the world, Ren wants to put an end to. The thought of Antarctica melting makes her shudder. And, of course, Ren doesn't realize it, but she fears herself. Her own mind, which is always telling her that she's worthless in a hundred different ways. She wouldn't consciously list herself under her fears, but her head is an enemy that she cannot silence, cannot escape. 

Backstory: Ren was born March 7, 2004, to a broken-hearted teenager who couldn't raise her. When she was only a few months old, she was adopted by a couple of two men, who had two sons, but had always wanted a daughter. Being the only girl in the house, sometimes Ren felt out of place, or alone. And whenever she needed to get out, she'd visit a nearby arboretum. She'd climb trees, bring picnics, do whatever she wanted, as long as it was outside. Her parents weren't very protective, and they allowed Ren every day to herself, unless, of course, she had school. In second grade, she met Johanna, her first best friend, and the person who introduced her to swimming. Her brothers had taught her how to swim, but never had she learned about real, competitive swimming. There was a team for third graders in her town, so the next year, both Ren and Johanna signed up. And Ren found her passion. And that same year, the Cohen family took a trip to the Caribbean over spring break, and the first time that she had ever been on an airplane. It was awful. She hated it, but loved the vacation. In fourth grade, Ren caught her brothers watching a horror movie. Naturally, they told that she couldn't watch it, but naturally, she watched it anyway. And loved every moment. That was the same year that she got into her first fight. As a 9-year-old, the fights weren't aggressive, but a boy in her grade had insulted one of her best friends, Sadie. Ren lost her temper as she defended her friend. Also that year, Ren broke her arm for the first time, and had to refrain from swimming for six weeks. Fifth grade. Ren taught herself to play guitar, and realized that she had a crush on Johanna. It wasn't until sixth grade that she started to struggle academically, her good grades becoming decent grades. Seventh and eighth grade were similar, filled with great times, and bad. In the summer between the two, she celebrated her thirteenth birthday and her bat mitzvah. Somewhere in those years, Ren developed an obsession with Stephen King novels. In ninth grade, she was bullied online, for almost the entire year. Now, Ren is in eleventh grade. She's been on 5 airplanes, which in her opinion, is 5 too many. Her grades are normally Bs and Cs. She's gotten into some real fights, and is dating a girl named Spring. Johanna is still on her swim team, and her longest-standing friend. Ren has done some research, and has figured out who her parents are. Finding them isn't important to her, but she's glad to know. All in all, Ren's an average girl, just trying to get by, and most of the time, succeeding. 

Family: William Patton Cohen(dad), James Henry Sanzel-Cohen(dad), Patton Timothy Cohen(oldest brother), Miles Liam Cohen(older brother). 

Friends: Johanna O'Connor, Sadie Callister, Lucy Valestian, Piper Chen, Valerie Youthner, Steve Aspen, Aaron DeForther, Evan Whates, Ariel Tatum. 

Relationship Status: Taken, dating Spring Foreman. 

Song Playlist: 

1. "Hiding in Your Hands" from Dear Evan Hansen. 

2. "Fearless" by Malinda Kathleen Reese. 

3. "Shallow" by Lady Gaga. 

4. "Natural" by Imagine Dragons. 

5. "idontwannabeyouanymore" by Billie Eilish.