Avril Lavigne skipped the pregnancy announcement and went straight to the baby: her first child, a daughter

The singer who wrote the soundtrack to a generation’s skate-park years has announced her first child in the most on-brand way possible: three pairs of checkered Vans on a skateboard, smallest pair at the end.

Avril Lavigne posted the news on Instagram on Friday, 13 November, in the United States, which was early Saturday morning in Australia. It was the first anyone outside her circle had heard of a baby; she had made no pregnancy announcement.

The post is a carousel of three black-and-white photographs. In the first, Lavigne and her partner hold the newborn’s tiny hand. In the second, she cradles her daughter, who is dressed in a cheetah-print outfit with a matching headband bow. The third is the skateboard, with three pairs of Vans lined up by height.

The caption, which included an expletive, announced that her “mini princess has arrived”, followed by a bow, a crown, a baby bottle and a pink heart.

Who is the father?

Lavigne has not said. The post shows a partner’s hand but she has not named him, and she has not given her daughter’s name or exact date of birth. VNN will not speculate on any of it.

Her past relationships have been public. She was married to Sum 41 frontman Deryck Whibley from 2006 to 2010, and later to Nickelback’s Chad Kroeger. She was engaged to the musician Mod Sun until they split in February 2023.

Why does it land so hard with fans?

Because Lavigne has been part of many fans’ lives for almost a quarter of a century. Her debut album, Let Go, came out in 2002, when she was 17, and its singles Complicated, Sk8er Boi and I’m with You made the Canadian from Napanee, Ontario, one of the biggest pop-punk stars in the world. The skateboard in her birth announcement is a nod to that era; in her case, the shoes really are part of the brand.

Many of the fans who grew up on Let Go are now parents themselves, which goes some way to explaining why the post spread so quickly. Lavigne has also been in a nostalgia-fuelled second wind, with a pop-punk revival bringing her early hits to younger listeners and her 2022 album Love Sux returning to the sound that made her name.

Is she part of a trend?

A small one. Several well-known musicians and actors have this year kept a pregnancy entirely private and announced a birth only once the baby had arrived, often with a single photo and few details. It is a way of controlling the story in an era of long-lens photographers and online speculation, and Lavigne’s post follows that pattern exactly: the news, the photos, and nothing else.

What about her music?

Lavigne has not said whether the birth will change her plans for new music or touring, and she gave no hint of work commitments in the post. Australian fans hoping for a return visit will have to wait for any announcement from her team.