Patrick Stump

Jinora, come forward. Today, we welcome the first airbending master in the generation. When the existence of our people was threatened, when the Avatar’s life hung in the balance, Jinora never gave up hope. Thanks to her leadership, I see a very bright future for the Air Nation.

Now, let us anoint the master who will help lead us in our new path.

Damn. I wasn’t very famous and I wasn’t very young (around 19), but when Fall Out Boy “Made it,” it messed with me quite a bit.  I can only imagine how it would be for younger kids. One of the problems with all of it is that fame automatically means backlash. I’m a grown man, I’m comfortable with myself. If someone were to tell me that my record sucks or they hated my show, I can handle that. If I heard that when I was 19? That would’ve broken my heart and it definitely did the multitude of times I heard how bad my band was. You will hear that, no matter what. You’ll hear you’re great too, but nothing sticks with you like an insult. Knowing that, and the pressures a teenager already has on them, I’d think it’d be really horrible to be in the public eye so young. A lot of the ways we utilize celebrity gossip as entertainment or “News,” basically amount to large scale bullying.

I say this of course acknowledging that there are way bigger problems in the world, way harder lives, and way harder places and times to be a young person. My heart goes out to the victims of the recent tornadoes or the civilians living in Libya right now. Tragedy and trauma are obviously harder.