‘Sport was the one place I felt safe’ – Paralympic star on pressure to conform

Paralympic rowing star Lauren Rowles has encouraged young girls to be themselves, after admitting the pressure she felt to conform was damaging to her mental health.

The 23-year-old, who retained her trunk-arms mixed double sculls title alongside Laurence Whiteley for Great Britain at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo last summer, has found the confidence to be her true self.

She is a proud and open member of the LGBTQ+ community, and also works to change people’s perceptions of disability after she developed transverse myelitis at the age of 13.

I got bullied for not looking like a girl and not being pretty like a girl. That really had a massive effect on me as a young kid.- Lauren Rowles

However, in her earlier years she admits that being a sporty girl led to her being bullied.

“I used to go round in football kit. I used to wear a low ponytail, I’d never wear anything girly, I used to wear sports kit, my Birmingham City kit mostly,” Rowles told the PA news agency in an interview to mark International Women’s Day.

“That’s where I felt most comfortable in myself. I got bullied at school for looking like a lesbian and I got bullied for not looking like a girl and not being pretty like a girl. That really had a massive effect on me as a young kid.”

Rowles, who first fell in love with football before moving on to athletics, recalls that around the age of 10 and 11 her mum encouraged her to dress differently, and to wear make-up and consider getting her ears pierced.

“She so badly wanted me not to get bullied and to fit in, and it was heart-breaking,” Rowles said.

“Then I think over my teenage years, 13 to 15, I was hyper-feminised. I wouldn’t go out the house without make-up on, I had overwhelming anxiety. I was trying to