{{#ifexist:Category:Articles needing additional references from June 2009 Lauren Charlotte Harries (born 1978 in Surrey, England), when called James, was a British childhood media personality who appeared on Wogan , as a childhood prodigy in the field of antiques.

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Biography

The son of Mark Harries, who worked in the hotel business and catering trade, ^[1] Harries was the youngest of three brothers with one younger sister. The family moved to Cardiff when Harries was still a baby. From the age of five, Harries enjoyed art and antiques, and had an ability to spot bargains at local car boot sales and secondhand shops. He spotted a piece of porcelain which he bought for pennies and sold for several thousand pounds, a story picked up by the Western Mail.

Child career

Encouraged by his family to appear in the media, Harries' first television appearance was on Terry Wogan's UK chat show, Wogan. The twelve-year-old demonstrated what seemed to be a knowledge of antiques which, combined with a striking appearance including bow ties, hair in thick golden curls, formal attire and a precocious manner of speaking, made him memorable to British viewers.

Harries's father Mark ran a kissogram business; after Harries' appearance on Wogan Mark supported the perception that Harries was an antiques expert. ^[2] Business opportunities arose out of the TV appearance, and the family opened an antiques shop and florists. Harries wrote a book entitled From Rags To Riches and tried to promote this when appearing on talk shows in the United States.

Harries' schooling suffered from the heightened publicity. Media opportunities and resulting business reduced as Harries grew up, and The family worked to maintain the businesses they had started, but ran into problems during the recession of the early 1990s. One of the properties owned by the Harries family housed a costume hire business which caught fire. Mark Harries was jailed for three years on charges of filing a false insurance claim, and all the Harries family businesses failed.

Sexual reassignment

As a child Harries had been taken to see a doctor about her female mannerisms; while the father, Mark, was in prison Harries decided to change his name to Lauren, transition to female, and investigate sex reassignment surgery, which was carried out in 2001. ^[3] Funding for this was generated from publicity arranged by Max Clifford.

On July 8, 2005, a gang of five to seven men attacked Lauren, her father and her brother in the family home. ^[4] One 17 year old boy was later fined and given a supervision order for his role in the incident. ^[5]

Later Career

In 2004, after Harries had changed gender, Channel 4 broadcast a documentary Little Lady Fauntleroy made by actor Keith Allen in which he interviewed the Harries family. Throughout the film Allen comments on the dysfunctionality of the family and ends up getting very angry with them. ^{[6] [7]} The documentary was released on 4 July 2005 as a commercial DVD.

In October 2006, Harries appeared in a Five television series Trust Me...I'm A Beauty Therapist , ^[8] which was filmed on location in a beauty therapists in Swansea, Wales.

In August 2007, Harries launched her and her family's website, which gave visitors, for a subscription, the ability to view a fly-on-the-wall vlog of herself and her family. The site closed soon afterwards.

In 2005, she appeared on Big Brother's Big Mouth to discuss the contestants on Big Brother , ^{[9] [10]} and in 2007 it was rumoured in the national press that she would participate as a contestant on Celebrity Big Brother . ^[11] However, she threatened to pull out unless she was able to bring incontinence supplies she has needed to use since her gender reassignment surgery, ^[12] and eventually did not enter the house.

Between 2007 and 2008 Harries was a regular contributor to Bizarre Magazine, both as a columnist as well as, in one issue, a naked model.

Harries is now an artist, who has converted to Buddhism. In March 2008 it was reported that a 'production company insider' had told Teletext that Harries was getting her own television show where she would 'undertake various unpleasant challenges'. ^[13]

In November 2008 Harries was featured as a cover girl in the specialist lifestyle magazine Transliving . ^[14]

References

1. Just call me Lauren
2. Lauren Harries: The boy in the made-up world
3. Transsexual to move to 'safer' LA
4. Sex change ex-child star in brutal attacked
5. Youth who attacked transsexual spared jail
6. TV Review
7. Switched On: Antiques Fraud Show
8. Sweet link for sexy Welshies
9. Big Mouth Tonight
10. Shout, Shout
11. Host of mystery stars prepare to enter the Big Brother house tonight
12. Lauren is very un-nappy
13. TV Show news report
14. Transliving International Magazine