Rant: Capitalizing on Confused Kids

<Begin rant>
In general, I'm an excessively mellow person. I'll admit, I get compared to a certain pointy-eared sci-fi character with a penchant for logic more often than I'd like. However, recent trends in the media, entertainment, political arena and the "medical" community have sent my heart rate ticking up lately.
     Why? Let's take a step back a moment and paint the background. The brain's frontal lobe is essentially our command center. It's responsible for all decision-making. It also doesn't complete development until we are well into our twenties. Until that part of our brain has finished adding all the cells it needs to be fully functional, we really aren't capable of making completely informed, rational, permanent decisions. Theoretically, we are not fully an adult until we're done growing, which means we're basically a kid until that brain finishes, somewhere between twenty-one and twenty-five years old.
     Think about it: most kids, (yes, "kids") change their majors on average three times before they finish college, if they even finish. (At least ten to twenty percent will not because they change their minds about getting an education after they've started, or don't have the means to finish.) Studies have also shown that individuals who get married before the age of twenty-five are twice as likely to divorce as those who wait until after those frontal lobes have finished developing.
     Children under the age of eighteen have difficulty even deciding what to wear in the morning, let alone sticking to that decision. Let them choose their meal plan, most will try to live on mac & cheese, PB&J and French fries with a giant soda because they are still unable to make rational choices that override fleeting emotional preferences. Ask a kid at five, ten, twelve, fourteen, and sixteen years old what s/he wants to be when grown, you'll likely get a different answer every time. Scientific research leveraging mounds of data has proven time and time again that children under 21 years of age simply are not equipped to make adult decisions.
     So why the $%^# are we letting kids make permanent, life-changing decisions that alter their bodies and future trajectory before their hormones have even thought about settling down, let alone their brain development completed? (Yeah, I'm talking about you, Jennings parents, and every adult that has allowed their under-age child to make a life-altering decision before they're old enough to earn a driver's license.) In the interest of a fat paycheck and their fifteen minutes of fame, adults are allowing children to make monumental decisions that are often too difficult for fully developed adults. They're chasing that heavy dose of stupidity with a shot of publicity-mongering media and political attention. Any rational adult with half a brain can see these decisions aren't being made with that child's best interests in mind. And what's worse, they're knowingly placing their children in the paths of psychopaths and bullies all for the sake of entertaining the masses and forwarding a cause.
     No, I'm not against alternative lifestyles in general. I really have no opinion since it's none of my business what others do behind closed doors. I AM against parading the sexuality of a confused teen - and they're ALL confused from 12 to pretty much 21 years old - on television and subjecting that child to the hate that is surely to follow. Let's face it, it is no secret that pursuing an "alternate" sexual lifestyle is still a dangerous undertaking in this day and age for a full grown adult. Brain development aside, no child should knowingly be placed in the path of danger, regardless of whether or not that child wants to be there. (I feel equally irritated by parents who let their kids ride bicycles and high-powered scooters on city streets without helmets or proper supervision.)
     While I'm ranting, the same goes for allowing children under the age of 18 to undergo surgical procedures without a parent or legal guardian's consent. I don't care if that surgery is a nose job, boob enhancement, abortion or sex change, it's not the kind of fully informed, rational decision an incomplete frontal lobe can make, regardless of how mature that child may appear to be on the outside. (I.e. Adult decision process re: abortion: "I do not have the means to support this child and the father has disappeared," or "I cannot safely carry a baby to term." Teen decision process: "Crap! My parents will find out I had sex with that guy they hate!")
     That aside, ANY kind of surgery on a child is a traumatic thing for a still-developing body to have to deal with because so much energy has to be diverted from growing to healing and recovery. That's the very reason my child, who suffers from a birth-defect that causes frequent reflux and vomiting, has to wait until she's eighteen before her medical professional, (top in his field), will even consider surgery. That, and you never know what her growing body might decide to do to correct the problem on its own, which is true for all of these kids.
     People, and I mean those of us over twenty-one who are making the laws and making the decisions for these kids, get a freakin' clue! Throwing a child like Jazz Jennings into a global path of psychopaths and bullies during a critical phase in life is just plain negligent. Every teen at that age goes through phases. Some choices stick and become a permanent aspect of our life, others end up being just a phase. (Yes, I had a male friend in high school we all were sure was gay. Turned out once his hormones kicked in, albeit much later than usual, that wasn't the case and he completely lost interest in that lifestyle. Meanwhile, a once boy-crazy cheerleader friend now has a female life partner 20+ years later.) Jazz won't get to properly explore him-/her-self and figure it out naturally because of the media pressure and public exposure resulting from this clear exploitation of a difficult teen journey. Without the cameras, Jazz could have explored the transgender lifestyle somewhat safely and quietly, the same way other teens experiment with who they are and who they may become. Thanks to parents who clearly chose fame and money over the protection of their child, that journey is not only public, but completely unsafe.
     The exploitation of children for entertainment, political and capital gains, (that would be the quacks performing "procedures" on kids that aren't medically necessary as well as producers who encourage parents to expose their kids to unsafe publicity for profit), needs to stop, and it needs to stop now. Let's face it, it's hard enough going through puberty and figuring out who you are without the added pressure of making adult decisions in the public eye.
     <End Rant>