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It is not known when the Avatar came into being, though a Water Tribe legend has persisted. As they would have it, an Earth Kingdom tyrant gifted Northern Water Tribe Princess Kidagakash a ring of jennamite that grew immediately on application. When the jennamite touched her eyes, however, they absorbed it and began to glow. Princess Kidagakash bent the remaining jennamite off her skin, drew the breath out of her would-be assassin, set fire to his corpse, and summoned a wave to wash away the evidence.
Other stories surfaced over the next few centuries, with the one consistency, among the more accredited stories, being the Avatar's gender. Citizens spoke of a captive Earth Kingdom princess escaping by firelight1, the daughter of a Southern Water Tribe chief flying to her lover’s rescue2, a Dai Li agent reducing terrorists to ash3, and a nomad who could make fire dance and disappear in a puff of air4. The first indication of the Avatar having a connection to the Spirit World concerned a woman named Megara. While the legitimacy of these Avatars is still in dispute, it's almost irrelevant because of the impact they had.
Recent technological developments have allowed the Avatar a more global presence than ever before. No longer do the names and faces of Avatars belong to historians alone. For the first time, children are growing up with the past and present Avatars' words on their screens. However, the Avatars that nations choose to immortalize have been argued as more sensational than heroic. The Earth Kingdom has written Mover after Mover about Avatar Elsa, who accidentally buried the entire landmass in snow for two weeks, but speaks little of Avatar Tiana, who used her combined powers of earth and water to uncover the truth about the "foggy swamp" that had stumped scientists for centuries.
The commercialization of the Avatar also raises safety concerns. Many have cited the live unveiling of Avatar Rapunzel's identity as the cause of her kidnapping. Dame Gothel died before this could be proven, but it should also be said that Avatar Rapunzel’s eventual discovery of her identity was reportedly triggered by a televised missing persons ad.
Avatar Rapunzel had grown up a mere Healer with no idea the full extent of her powers and, once rescued from captivity, was thrust into a world that expected a battle-ready Avatar. Old arguments about when an Avatar's identity should be revealed and whom to were revived.
In ancient practice, until the Avatar reached her sixteenth birthday, her identity was not disclosed to anyone but her parent or guardian. This granted her as normal a childhood as could have been asked for, but robbed her of the opportunity to attain control of her powers before they grew. Although Avatar Elsa's snowstorm is what ultimately forced the Order of the White Lotus to execute a change, she was not the first to suffer as a result of this practice. After being informed of her identity at age sixteen and immediately sent into grueling training, Avatar Aurora fell into the Avatar State for a full month. Luckily, neighboring civilians went comatose at worst, but Avatar Aurora was so drained from the experience that her life remains the shortest an Avatar has lived on record.
Most agree that a change was long overdue. The Avatar's guardian retained the rights, however, to keep her identity and training local. The ethical implications of sending a child around the world to, essentially, train as a god met no argument at the time. However, the case has since been made that it limits the Avatar's ability to truly speak for all four nations. People used to joke about the lengths Avatar Ariel would go to to avoid using her primary element, water, but when Fire Nation-born Avatar Jasmine asked to be branded the tattoos of an Air Nomad, there were organized protests.
As long as the Avatar is raised in just one nation, citizens may never truly see her as neutral. I am delighted to be privy to an era in which these questions are at the forefront.