Lauren Jackson, a basketball player, was born on Monday, May 11, 1981, in Albury. Gary Jackson and Maree Bennie, her parents, were also professional basketball players. They came to America as teenagers and played together in Chicago for one season before splitting up. Maree went on to play for several American teams while Gary stayed in Australia until 1995 when he came over too. She has two siblings: brother Dan, who is also a basketball player; and sister Ashleigh, who is a soccer player. Her family lives in Seattle. Lauren started playing basketball at an early age. When she was five years old, she already stood 1.80 meters (5'9") tall and weighed 30 kg (66 lbs). At the age of nine, she began taking lessons twice a week from a coach who taught her the basics of basketball. A year later, she joined a local team. In 1998, when Lauren was 12 years old, her family moved to Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, where she could develop as a player under the eye of a coach who had seen how well she worked hard. In 2001, when she was 13 years old, she returned to America to join the University of Washington where she spent one year learning from some of the best coaches in the country.