Pink Shuts Down the MTV VMAs With Heartbreaking and Empowering Speech About Daughter Willow
The singer shared a story that was equal parts devastating and inspiring.
Pink is sharing a major mom moment right now.
Following an incredible performance at the MTV Video Music Awards, including a show-stopping medley of her biggest hits and a choreographed rendition of her newest single, "What About Us," Pink accepted the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award from pal Ellen DeGeneres. The 37-year-old pop star used her time at the mic to share a devastating-turned-empowering story about 6-year-old daughter Willow.
"Recently, I was driving my daughter to school and she said to me, out of the blue, 'Mama, I'm the ugliest girl I know,'" Pink began. "She was like, 'Yeah, I look like a boy with long hair.' And my brain went to, 'Oh my God, you're 6. Where is this coming from? Who said this? Can I kick a 6-year-old's ass?'"
The mom of two said she went home and made a PowerPoint presentation of "androgynous rock stars and artists that live their truth, are probably made fun of every day of their life, and carry on and wave their flag and inspire the rest of us." Among them: Michael Jackson, David Bowie, Freddie Mercury, Annie Lennox, Prince, Janis Joplin, George Michael and Elton John.
"Her eyes glazed over," Pink joked. "But then I said, 'I really want to know why you feel this way about yourself.'"
Willow repeated, "I look like a boy." But when Pink asked, "What do you think I look like?" Willow responded, "You're beautiful."
"I said, 'Well, thanks, but when people make fun of me, that's what they use,'" Pink continued. "I look like a boy ... I have too many opinions ... My body is too strong."
Then, the three-time GRAMMY winner asked her daughter "Do you see me growing my hair? ... Do you see me changing my body? ... Do you see me selling out arenas all over the world?"
"So, baby girl," Pink concluded, "We don't change. We take gravel in a shell and we make a pearl, and we help other people to change. ... You, my darling girl, are beautiful and I love you."
While we were already fully on-board with Pink and Willow's incredibly fashionable menswear ensembles on the red carpet -- this makes the moment even sweeter.
Keep slaying, Pink and Willow!
And in the words of host Katy Perry: "I am shooketh. I am dead. I am crying. She's iconic!"