Lain Iwakura is the main protagonist and titular character of Serial Experiments Lain. On the surface Lain appears to be your ordinary 14-year-old middle school girl, only a little bit more withdrawn.
She's shorter than most of the characters in the show. She has pale skin, brown eyes and brown hair. Her hair is short, left slightly above the shoulders and a long lock of hair on the left side of her face. She wears a yellow hair-clip throughout the show. The hair-clip is 'X' shaped and wraps the entire lock of hair securely. She has a stereotypical Japanese family with a stay-at-home mother and a work-obsessed father. Her older sister seems to move to a completely different beat; the total opposite of Lain. Early on, however, we know there is something amiss with Lain, because she is being sited in places where one would hardly find a shy, reserved schoolgirl. As Lain starts to become interested in the Wired and more proficient at exploring it, she starts to take on a more confident and assertive tone as many do behind the anonymity of the keyboard. We call this persona "Digital Lain". Clearly, there are three personas of Lain. Lain in the "Real World", "Digital Lain", and the mysterious, totally mad (using Taro's words), "Lain in the Wired".