Pink was the recipient of this year’s Video Vanguard Award at Sunday’s MTV Video Music Awards, delivering an awe-inspiring medley of hits including Just Give Me a Reason, So What etc.
After being handed her Moon Person trophy by longtime pal Ellen DeGeneres, the pop star dedicated her acceptance speech to Willow, her six years old daughter. She recounted a story about when she recently drove Willow to school.
She said:
“She said to me out of the blue, ‘Mama, I’m the ugliest girl I know,’ ” “And I said, ‘Huh?’ And she said, ‘Yeah, I look like a boy with long hair.’ And my brain went to, ‘Oh my God, you’re six. Where is this coming from? Can I kick a six-year-old’s (butt)?’ “
Instead of saying something, I went home and made Willow a PowerPoint presentation of “androgynous rock stars” such as Michael Jackson, David Bowie, Prince, Annie Lennox and Freddie Mercury: “artists (who) 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.”
“I said, ‘When people make fun of me, that’s what they use: They say I look like a boy or I’m too masculine or I have too many opinions or that my body is too strong,” Pink said. “And I said, ‘Do you see me growing my hair?’ And she said, ‘No, mama.’ ‘Do you see me changing my body?’ ‘No, mama.’ ‘Do you see me changing the way I present myself to the world?’ ‘No, mama.’ ‘Do you see me selling out arenas all over the world?’ ‘Yes, mama.’
“So, baby girl, we don’t change,” she continued. “We take the gravel in the shell and we make a pearl. And we help other people to change so that they can see more kinds of beauty. …And you, my darling girl, are beautiful. I love you.”
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