Newsflash: Avril Lavigne is all grown up. She’s sexy in an adult way now, looking like a vampy version of Taylor Swift. The reformed sk8er girl is hoping to make a major comeback with a new album, which is why we’re seeing a lot more of her these days, including this sexpot spread in Vanity Fair Italy.
No, we didn’t know there was an Italian Vanity Fair, and no, we didn’t know that Avril had an Italian following, but we guess that she’s happy to remind anyone of her existence after a lengthy professional sabbatical. So far, the reception to her new tunes has been mixed (her first single hit 13 on the U.S. charts). Meanwhile, the eternally complicated pop tart is doing her best to stay in the headlines with controversial statements—“don’t compare me to Madonna”—and even more controversial hair. Maybe we should compare her to Rainbow Brite instead.
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Courtney Shea is a freelance journalist in Toronto. She started her career as an intern at Toronto Life and continues to contribute frequently to the publication, including her 2022 National Magazine Award–winning feature, “The Death Cheaters,” her regular Q&As and her recent investigation into whether Taylor Swift hung out at a Toronto dive bar (she did not). Courtney was a producer and writer on the 2022 documentary The Talented Mr. Rosenberg, based on her 2014 Toronto Life magazine feature “The Yorkville Swindler.”