Lauren Drain

Lauren Drain was born in 1985 in Tampa, Florida to Steven and Lucy Drain. She has a younger sister named Taylor. When Lauren was in Elementary school the family moved to Kanas so that Steve could go to school. They stayed several years in Kansas before moving back to Florida. After being back in Florida for a while Steve decided that he wanted to make a movie about the Westboro Baptist Church. At first Steve was critical of their teachings, but after filming them picket he changed his mind about them. After learning more about the church Steve started treating Lauren severely, taking her out of school and not letting her see her friends. He would only let her communicate with some of the girls that were in the Church who were granddaughters of the preacher Fred Phelps. Shortly after this the family again backed up and moved to Kansas to be near the Phelps family. Over the next several years Lauren spent her time going to school, going to pickets and help raise her brother Abel and sister Faith that were born after their move to Kansas. That all changed though when Lauren started communicating with a guy who has seen a video she and her friends had posted on youtube about the church. Her parents and the rest of the church decided to kick her out. After several months of still living in Topeka Kansas she decided to move to Connecticut to be closer to the guy. She eventually wrote a book about her experiences with the church called Banished.