Parents: John Lavigne (Father) & Judy (Mother)

Height: 5' 2"

Siblings: Michelle (younger sister) & Matthew (elder brother)

Avril is the French word for April. Avril's parents are French-Canadians.

At the age of 16, Avril dropped out of High School after she was signed by Arista Records head L.A. Reid. She moved to New York City to work on her first album.. She became one of the most popular new pop music artists of 2002, when she released her first album "Let Go" on June 4, 2002, and was certified "Quadruple Platinum" less than six months later by the Recording Industry Association of America. She was named "Best New Artist" at the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards and at the 2003 Juno Awards, where she led all musicians with six nominations, winning four Junos. She also has been nominated for eight Grammy Awards but has not won any to date.

Apparently, early attempts to co-write songs for her failed to meet her approval, and she eventually moved to Los Angeles, California and co-wrote her album with Clif Magness and a songwriting team called "The Matrix", whose previous work included songs for Sheena Easton and Christina Aguilera. Her first album, Let Go, was released by Arista on June 4, 2002,

As of June 2004, Let Go had sold 14 million albums and reached the number one spot in the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada and number two spot in the United States. It was the third best selling album of 2002.

Avril has often been compared to Alanis Morissette by the media, though she has been criticized for not being as strong a lyricist as Morissette at the same age. She has also often been compared with singers Vanessa Carlton and Michelle Branch, who emerged at about the same time and were, like Lavigne, popularly credited as being part of a trend towards more earnestness and genuine creativity in an often vacuous and pre-fabricated teen pop music market.

Avril Lavigne has made the list of FHM 100 Sexiest Women in the World 2003 and the FHM 100 Sexiest Women in the World 2004.

Whilst her marketing has been every bit as sophisticated as, for instance, that of Britney Spears and her competitors, a profile in the Washington Post found that in the flesh, her personality reflected the marketing and found her, if anything, something of a wide-eyed innocent, citing the fact that she was intending to purchase her first Ramones CD. In another interview, she listed her current listening tastes as including Blink 182, Sum 41, and System of a Down. Lavigne had a close friendship with Deryck Whibley of Sum 41 and hired a former member of that band Mark Spicoluk as a member of her backing band.

Avril describes her first album as a pop album with "a couple of rock songs on it," and has indicated a desire to write more rock-oriented songs in the future. She wrote most of her 2004 album with Canadian singer-songwriter Chantal Kreviazuk. She also co-wrote one track, "Nobody's Home", with Ben Moody, formerly of Evanescence, and the rest with her guitarist Evan Taubenfeld.

Her new album, "Under My Skin", was released on May 25, 2004 and went to number1 around the world notably the UK, USA, Canada and Australia and on the Billboard Internet charts. The first single, "Don't Tell Me", was released early, and as at June 2004, has gone to number1 in Argentina, top 5 in the UK and Canada, and top 10 in Australia, Brazil and a European composite chart.

During an interview for a Boston radio station, Lavigne then said that Duff was a "mommy's girl" and a "goody two-shoes." She then said to Duff (who was not present during that interview), "You can go screw yourself". Reportedly, Lavigne also said about Duff, "I'm sure she's really nice and sweet. I'm sure she's all smiles."

During that same interview, she spotted a picture of herself and ripped it up, allegedly saying "I hate that (****) photo!" All this happened while on air. According to Avril, she had permission to take the picture down.

Avril's famous quote: I mean, the way she dresses — would you walk around the street in a f*****' bra?" she asks rhetorically. "I'm not trying to dis anyone, but with me, the clothes I wear onstage are the clothes I would wear to school or go shopping. I'm not gonna go up onstage and dress different. Britney Spears goes up onstage and dresses like a showgirl. She's not being herself up there because she's dancing like a ho. Is she ho? She says she's a virgin. Y'know, it's just not clicking. She's doing one thing and saying another thing, y'know? It's definitely not what I'm going to do."