The Project star Tommy Little’s unrecognisable throwback snap

Project star Tommy Little shocked his fellow panellists with a glimpse of what he looked like before he was famous.

The Project panellist Tommy Little treated viewers to a photo of himself as an unrecognisably dorky teen during an interview with Avril Lavigne during Sunday night’s episode

Speaking to the Sk8er Boi hit maker, who this year marks 20 years since the release of her debut album, Little noted that Avril’s early hits resonated with anyone going through puberty in the early noughties – like this guy:

Little Tommy.

Yep, that’s Tommy Little. His fellow Project panellists couldn’t let the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment slide after the interview was over, asking for the image to be shown on screen again.

“What stage were you going through at that point?” asked Lisa Wilkinson.

All grown up.

“My confused stage,” said 36-year-old Little, estimating that he would’ve been around 13 years old in the pic (which would date it at around 1998, some four years before Lavigne released her debut single).

“And straight back from a trip to Bali?” Wilkinson continued.

“One throat tattoo away from prison,” he quipped.

Avril Lavigne’s been releasing music for 20 years. Feel old yet?

Little isn’t the only Project star to air some embarrassing teenage photos on the show – Carrie Bickmore last year shared an adorably awkward pic from her Year 12 formal with viewers.

She’d earlier shared some hilarious pics from her teenage years on Instagram.

Elsewhere in Little’s interview, Lavigne opened up about the influence she’s had on a new generation of pop stars, with chart-toppers like Olivia Rodrigo and Gayle clearly paying a debt to her music.

“All of the girls that have said that to me that I‘ve met have just been so sweet and they’re so talented,” she said.

“It’s wild to be 20 years into my career and to meet these other younger female artists who are just killing it right now. And to hear them tell me that I inspired them or that they love my music and that I made an impact on them – it‘s an honour, because what they’re doing is incredible.”

Lavigne will release her upcoming seventh album, Love Sux, on February 25.