Avril Lavigne ROCKS For Charity

Singer-songwriter Avril Lavigne, who launched her own charitable foundation last year, says she had been planning the charity for awhile, but still has much to learn about running The Avril Lavigne Foundation and developing its path.

She wanted her own foundation, she says, as a more meaningful way to support the causes she is interested in. In an interview with CNN Asia, Lavigne said, "I did a lot of stuff with the Make-A-Wish Foundation and that really touched me, so I wanted to stay there. I’ve met a lot of kids that come to the concert and maybe it was their last wish to meet me or just to come to a show and I was really moved by that."

With a continued focus on helping children and youth with disabilities and serious illnesses, her charity created its own “R.O.C.K.S.” philosophy: Respect.Opportunity.Choices.Knowledge.Strength.

“What I’ve learned,” says Lavigne, “is that we all just want to be happy and have the chance to follow our dreams, which makes us all the same in ways that really matter.”