Do you want to work in radio?

[Jono]

Below is the piece in Wednesday's copy of The Sun newspaper.

<b>By DULCIE PEARCE

December 27, 2006</b>

WHEN Laura Sayers started writing a diary 14 years ago, she had no idea the nation would one day be gripped by the trials and tribulations of her love life.

Now aged 28, Radio 1 producer Laura agreed to let her sister Mary, 18, read an extract on Scott Mills’ show “for a laugh”.

Listeners were immediately hooked and demanded that Laura’s Diary be made a regular feature. Within days, millions were tuning in to hear the diaries.

Her teenage tales have now been made into a book, Laura’s Diary.

The shocked author recalls: “My nosy little sister Mary found my old diaries when she was rummaging through my old bedroom. She thought Scott Mills would find them funny, so she read an extract out on air.

“I was only 14 when I started writing them so she found them quite amusing, as everything is quite silly and innocent at that age. But the more she read, the more humiliating I found it.

“As I was getting older in the diaries, I was having relationship problems with my ex-boyfriend, Ben, who I’m still friends with. Luckily, he wasn’t in the country at the time it was read to the nation, so he managed to escape most of the embarrassment.”

Laura’s diaries span from her being an innocent 14-year-old snogging boys at school discos to heartbreak and a pregnancy scare as an 18-year-old. Here are a couple of extracts:

August 28, 1993: School is pretty boring. Got up to submarine level on Nadine’s Game Boy. Had a dream about Jamie last night. It was so real. I looked into his eyes and we kissed. I love him, he’s so nice.

I daydream about him. I try to look my best and act cool around him. I just hope he likes me.

Every time I hear Boom! Shake The Room, I think of him.

August 16, 1996: Just got in from town. My coat stinks of cigarettes but I sprayed myself with deo before I got in and I think I’ve got away with it.

I’ve decided I really like Anthony today. I talked to Emma about it and she says go for it. I don’t think my mum would mind, she seems to like him too. I got Emma to call in his work and ask if he’s seeing anyone, and guess what . . . they said he wasn’t. I just need him to notice me.

Laura says: “I started writing my diaries to have someone to talk to. Going to an all-girls school, I had little experience of boys. When I started going to the local youth club, it became my life. I fancied all the boys and couldn’t wait to go every week.

“Writing my diary became a habit. It was like being able to tell someone all my secrets. Looking back they’re so cringy, but then they were deadly serious.”

More embarrassment was to follow when Radio 1 launched One Night With Laura — a nationwide search to find the then-single diarist a date.

She says: “Mary, my dad Stephen, Scott Mills, and some of my friends toured the country as judges, auditioning boys who wanted to go on a date with me. After they had chosen the final five, listeners had to vote on which man they wanted me to go on a date with. They chose a lovely guy called Gareth. We went to EuroDisney but unfortunately there wasn’t any attraction.”

However, Laura did find love, with James who came fourth in the contest. They recently moved in together and Laura feels she may have finally found Mr Right. She says: “Things are definitely much more stable in my love life these days. Meeting James has been wonderful and I hope it will have a happy ending. I’m still writing my diaries and think I always will — but from now on I’m keeping them well hidden!”