Avril Lavigne has admitted that she was moody and hard to deal with when she toured Australia for the first time.

Many reporters complained that Lavigne was grumpy and reluctant to answer questions when she visited Australia.

Now planning to tour Australia again, Avril has insisted that she is now more mature and able to handle her fame.

"Look I was only 17 years old, had sold 15 million records and everyone seemed to want a piece of me," she said. "I was being hounded by the paparazzi and that was really hard to deal with.

"I never knew when they would appear from beneath bushes and the like.

"It was not actually until the end of that Australian tour when my world tour also ended, that I went home to Toronto relaxed and thought about what I had just done. I could not believe it had all happened so quickly.

"I have grown up so much in the past two years. I have been through a lot and I have learned a lot. These new songs off my album Under My Skin are about all that and each is very personal to me."