When Avril Levigne hit the scene in 2002, she was the antithesis of everything glamorous. In heavily lined eyes and baggy fatigue pants, she poked her tongue out at mainstream notions of beauty and flipped a bird to the TRL cookie-cutter for pop star images. She told teens it was ok to be different, rockerish, and roguish even. Her music, her style and her attitude represented the restlessness felt by her generation and refused to conform the way many of her peers did. When she released “I’m With You,” grown-ups listened to it and paid attention. Her attitude had captured the youth, but it was her voice- strong, versatile, and beautiful- that garnered the respect of older listeners. Then she disappeared from the radar. But she’s back, grown up and all dolled up- on the pages of the February issue of Harper’s Bazaar, no less!
There, we learn that Avril is engaged to Sum 41 rocker, Deryck Whibley and has taken to exploring her girly side. I gasped at the thought- first because this chick, whom my inner child idolized for her brash disregard of the “powers that be,” seems to have given in. Then I saw her spread and gasped again. Beautiful and made to look like a porcelain sex pistol, 21 year-old Ms. Lavigne is still herself! She still mixes her studs into her new femmed-up look, and her engagement at such a young age- against the wishes of many elders- says she’s still confident in her own decisions. Can you believe she wants to rep a glamorous lifestyle brand in print ads? I can, and her Bazaar photos demonstrate that she's as able as she is ready. Quite the turn.
