A lot can change in a few short years, y’all. If anything, that’s what former One Direction star Louis Tomlinson‘s transformation has taught us. Born in Doncaster in 1991, the now 28-year-old started out as a starry-eyed hopeful on X Factor — just like the rest of his future bandmates. After attempting to make it past the judges in 2009 and failing, he came back again the following year, where he was made part of a five-piece group consisting of Zayn Malik, Harry Styles, Niall Horan and Liam Payne. This allowed the boys to go on to compete and eventually land the coveted third place slot during the finals of the reality competition.
Throughout the series, the group gained immense popularity in the U.K. — and thankfully so, or else we may have never gotten to see our boy Louis grow into himself so well. As you definitely know, the rest is, in fact, history. Scroll through the gallery to see Louis Tomlinson’s transformation over the years!