EMMERDALE legend Louisa Clein looks totally unrecognisable in a string of throwback snaps she posted today.

The 42-year-old actress played child groomer Maya Stepney on the ITV soap from 2018 to 2019 and stunned her social media followers with a slew of old photos on Instagram.

The soap star shared several adorable photos from her childhood and another of her in 20s fishing.

In one adorable shot, Louisa was seen in her school uniform sporting a voluminous curly coif alongside her sister.

While another snap saw the actress clad in a multi-coloured jumper and striped trousers walking along the beach.

She penned across the shots shared to her Instagram Story: "Old school photos, some stunning fashion choices…

"How cool is my mum….???!!!!" before writing, "Who knew I could fish?" across a modern photo of herself clad in a bikini and shorts.

She later shared several more polaroid photos of her on set of the TV series Island At War in 2003.

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She captioned the post: "Technology has moved on since i started working…. I miss the Polaroids! #judgejohndeed #islandatwar #jennyseagrove".

Louisa's Emmerdale character Maya made waves in 2019 when she had an illegal relationship with 15-year-old Jacob Gallagher, played by Joe-Warren Plant.

After Maya’s affair with Jacob was discovered, she was arrested, suspended from her job and left the village in 2019.

But she later made a surprise return, and the scenes were kept a big secret from the rest of the cast and crew.

She told the Soap From The Box podcast: “No one knew about it, it was top secret. It wasn’t on any call sheets, they had taken it out of the scripts.

"We had no crew, so the director was operating the camera, there was one make-up, one costume person and the producer was the assistant director.

“There was literally five of us. I had to come into the studio when everyone else had finished," she added.

“I got a phone call saying that I could come in now because so and so had left the building.

“So nobody knew. I was a bit frightened of not keeping it a secret because if it had got out, they would have known it was me and I would have been in so much trouble.”

Last April, Louisa revealed playing the soap baddie led to her getting grief from strangers even when she was out shopping with her young son.

Louisa revealed: “I did have a situation where I was with my little son, who was two. I was in a shop and someone came up to me and went, ‘You are such a b***h’.

“I was like, ‘You know it’s not real? I’m with my son and he just thinks some strange lady has come up to me and said something mean’.

“I’ve had a few slightly older, unattractive men shouting at me, going, ‘Oh I’m too old for you!’

“My response is usually that it’s not your age that’s the problem here.”

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