Make It Or Break It: Lauren Tanner

Lauren Tanner: My fave character in Abc's hit show 'Make It Or Break It'.

Like Kaylie, Lauren has been training at the Rock since she was 8. When Payson moved to Boulder, Lauren and Kaylie became her best friends, and the three remained that way until the arrival of Emily Kmetko at the Rock. Lauren became extremely defensive of her spot at the Rock, noting that Emily could push either her or Kaylie out of the 3rd spot for National rankings. When Kaylie refuses to go along with anything Lauren suggests other than the "silent treatment," Lauren takes things into her own hands. Her father, Steve, is completely wrapped around her finger, and she implores him to find some way to get Emily kicked out of the Rock. When her father finds no pertinent information on Emily (though he does find some on Marty, the Rock's coach), Lauren takes things even further. After a slip-up on beam, her best event (her personality and prowess on the balance beam gives her the nickname "the Bitch of the Beam"), she finds herself in 4th place, behind Emily and out of the final spot for top flight. Indignant, Lauren resorts to changing Emily's vault setting, causing her to go crashing head-first into the vault and effectively knocking her out of the competition. Much to Lauren's surprise, not only does Emily recover from this incident, but she goes on to regain 3rd place and push Lauren down to 4th and the second flight. Desperate for a shot at top 3, Lauren proceeds to throw Kaylie under the bus by mentioning Kaylie's forbidden relationship with fellow gymnast Carter Anderson to their coach, Marty. After Emily covers for Kaylie, therefore keeping the contract-infringment romance alive and Kaylie in 2nd place, Lauren storms out and transfers to Denver, taking Marty and an assured spot in Denver's top 3 with her.

After Lauren briefly leaves the Rock for rival club Denver Elite, she returns when her father enlists world-famous head coach Sasha Beloff to be the new coach of the Rock. She's not exactly welcomed back with open arms: a direct quote from Payson goes "If someone doesn't hold me back, she's gonna get my heel up the side of her bleached blonde head." Regardless, Lauren continues training at the Rock, but she sets her sights on something different than the top 3 this time around: now she wants Kaylie's boyfriend Carter. She attends Blast-Off, a high school kegger, after her birthday dinner is "ruined" by the arrival of her father's new girlfriend, Summer. While at the kegger, she sees a drunk and sad Carter sitting alone. She sits beside him and, in a moment of weakness, they kiss and ultimately sleep together. Lauren feels terrible about the betrayal she has committed to her best friend Kaylie, and therefore decides not to tell her about it, reasoning that Carter should be the one to tell her and that Lauren should not be involved in it anymore than prompting Carter to tell Kaylie.

Lauren comes to have a real connection with her father's fiancee Summer. While at first despising Summer for taking her place in Steve Tanner's heart, Lauren later comes to realize that her father will always love her the same way and that Summer just wants to help her. Lauren takes advantage of this help after Carter rejects her at the Nationals send-off party at the Cruzes' house. With her attempts at persuading Carter to break up with Kaylie to avoid having to inform her about his cheating failing, Lauren plants Carter's cell phone (which contains pictures of him kissing Kaylie) where Mr. Cruz, Kaylie's father finds it. Mr. Cruz then blows up at Kaylie, and when Carter tries to defend her, Mr. Cruz forbids their relationship and orders Carter out of his house. Lauren seizes this opportunity as the time to declare her love to Carter, but he vehemently rejects her, calling her a liar and telling her that he will never love her. After this outburst, Lauren arrives at Summer's door in tears and opens herself up for support from someone else.

At Nationals, Lauren is reeling from the disappointment of her real mother "standing her up" about coming to watch her compete. Lauren is given her phone number by a reluctant Steve after Summer convinces him that it should be Lauren's choice to contact her or not, and Lauren calls her, asking her to come watch her at Nationals. When Lauren arrives at the bus station to pick her mother up, however, she is not there. Heartbroken, Lauren admits to her friends that her mother isn't a relief worker with the Red Cross like she tells everyone: her mom is really a drug addict who loved getting high more than she loved her own child. When Summer finds out at Nationals that Steve threatened Lauren's mother Leslie to stay away from the competition, Summer breaks off her engagement with him. Lauren finds out that Summer has left and is even more distraught. However, Summer stays to watch the competition and support Lauren, giving her the heart and determination she needs to place 4th at Nationals and become a member of the National Team.

Personal information
Name	Lauren Tanner
Gender	Female
Parent(s)	Steve Tanner Leslie Tanner (birth mother)
Hair color	Blonde
Eye color	Brown
Gymnastics information
Trains at	The Rock
Specializes in	Balance beam
Teammates	Emily Kmetko Kaylie Cruz Payson Keeler
Rivals	Kelly Parker
Coach	Sasha Belov
Ranking	4th in Nationals all-around

"You know, these devil horns really suit you!" - Lauren Tanner