Jake Shears Quotes

I came out when I was 17 - coming out in middle or high school is one of the most difficult things that anyone could experience. I wouldn't wish it on my enemies.

You never grow out of high school sadly.

Anyone who's been a teenager, or raised one, knows growing up is hard. Kids can be cruel to their peers, and many young people go through tough times and experience low moments.

Growing up in public is especially hard sometimes.

When you're a young kid and you're gay, you're out there on your own. And you're trying to figure this thing out. And your parents typically aren't gay.

It's rough being a teenager in this day and age.

Who has the best features? This was a little game, conducted several times and always with the same results, in seventh grade, the time when so many of life's little horrors begin.

I stopped going to school in the middle of fourth grade. Everyone grows up with the peer pressure, and kids being mean to each other in school. I think that's such a horrible thing, but I never really dealt with it in a high school way.

I knew I was different when I was about six years of age but I just knew that I wasn't like everybody else. I mean I wasn't like the other kids. I didn't know what that was. But I guess it was when I was in seventh or eighth grade, I'm like, 'Hey, something's wrong here.'

Being a teenager is hard.

Who really wants to be themselves when they're teenagers?

There's so much bullying with young people and them feeling like they can't come out, and they don't know what to do. And it's something that you have to work through. And, you know, for me, it was - I came out, and then I went back in for a minute. And then I came out, and I was like, 'You know what? This is who I am.'

Junior and senior high school years were not a good time.

High school was interesting. For the most part, I quite enjoyed it. But everyone is trying to find their footing, and school can be a tough environment. Kids can be cruel to each other. It's quite unforgiving at times.

My teenage life was a little strange.

I had a really tough time in high school.

I didn't quite fit in in any particular, specific way. I was a gay teenager who was into drama.

At a young age, I was very aware I was different and not perceived in a good way. For a lot of my adolescence, I struggled with that, trying to identify where I belong and who my real friends are.

I had a lot of fear about coming out as a kid.

Bullying has existed forever. Everyone has dealt with it, and teenagers, regardless of where they are, are dealing with the same stuff growing up.

When I went to prom in the early 1990s, I seesawed between my wish to get asked by the right guy and ride in the cool kids' limousine with the burgeoning realization that I was gay. I had a fun night, but I was far from my authentic, assertive self that night. Prom felt mostly like a job I had to do to maintain my position in the social hierarchy.

Dead girl walking” the boys say in the halls. “Tell us your secrets” the girls whisper, one toilet to another. "I am that girl. I am the spaces between my thighs, daylight shinning through. I am the bones they want, wired on a porcelain frame.

Being a teenager and figuring out who you are is hard enough without someone attacking you.

I watch a lot of teen TV and read a lot of YA novels. I also talk to teens whenever I can. There are cultural differences between when I was a teen and now, but emotions - anger, angst, love - are the same.

In high school, people wanted to find the worst in me.