Avril Lavigne is a singer-songwriter who was born in Ontario, Canada, in 1984. While Lavigne’s talent as a singer was recognized when she was only two years old, she didn’t make a big break until 1999, when she won a contest to sing alongside Shania Twain in front of an audience of 20,000. This performance led to Lavigne gaining the attention of several managers and executives, and in November of 2000, when she was 16, she was offered a substantial record deal with Arista Records. Lavigne dropped out of high school to pursue the contract, and the success of her first three singles made her only the second artist in history to have three number one songs from a debut album on the Billboard Mainstream Top 40. She was only 17 when these singles topped the charts, and her second album, 2004’s Under My Skin, reached number one on the U.S. Billboard 200. After three more extremely successful studio albums, which made her one of the top-selling artists in the U.S., Lavigne branched out from music to design perfumes, clothes, and act. In 2006, she appeared in Fast Food Nation and the children’s film Over the Hedge, and 2008 and 2009 saw the releases of her clothing line and first perfume. Lavigne has also been involved in many charities and is noted for her unique style and keeping her music at the forefront of her career. She’s been quoted as saying, “I'm just saying, I don't want to sell sex. I feel that's sort of lame and low. I've got so much more to say.”