Teen's 60kg Turnaround I Lost Weight & Found Love!

She’s out of her shell and finally living it up.

- Ellen Mackenzie

At the age of 18, Lauren Crosby is the youngest patient on the Kiwi reality show The Big Ward to receive bariatric surgery – and as she poses for the Woman’s Day camera alongside her mum Sharon Johnstone, she talks of how the risky operation has changed her life for the better.

Before her operation last June, a morbidly obese Lauren tipped the scales at 167kg and was struggling through high school.

“I avoided any situation that would make me uncomfortable,” she tells. “I didn’t want to go out to parties because I didn’t have nice or trendy clothes to wear.”