Pink's beautiful, unexpected response when her daughter was feeling 'ugly.'

Evan Porter
08.28.17

If you follow Pink at all, you know she's a pretty awesome mom.

Her Instagram account is filled with adorable pics of her with her two young kids. In these posts, Pink is down to earth, honest, and best of all, has a great sense of humor about the whole parenting journey:

But even Pink has challenging moments as a parent.

In her speech at the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards, Pink shared an amazing and powerful story about — and for — her daughter.

After winning the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award, Pink took the stage and stepped to the mic. It was clear she had something important on her mind.

"Recently I was driving my daughter to school and she said to me, out of the blue, 'Momma ... I'm the ugliest girl I know,'" Pink recalled. "'I look like a boy with long hair.'"

Hearing your child being hard on themselves is a heartbreaking moment for any parent. But if you think Pink just blurted out, "OMG, what? Baby, you are so pretty!" well... you don't know Pink.

"I went home and I made a PowerPoint presentation for her," Pink said.

"And in that presentation were androgynous rockstars and artists that lived their truth," she added. "[People] who are probably made fun of every day of their life and carry on and wave their flag and inspire the rest of us."

She listed a handful of world-changing talents, like Michael Jackson and Elton John, like Pink herself, who never let anyone's expectations or opinions hold them back. Proving her point even further, Pink, her daughter, and her husband Carey Hart all showed up at the VMAs last night wearing matching suits.

Photo by Phillip Faraone/Getty Images.

On stage, Pink shared this monumental moment of parenting clarity: Yes, most kids will battle with self-image and self-esteem at some point, and no, of course, they should never be made to feel like they are ugly or that their bodies are wrong in any way.

BUT — in our rush to reassure our kids that they are beautiful or handsome or pretty or cute, we should never forget that these are moments when we can teach them that there are greater things to aspire to than traditional standards of beauty ... because beauty is subjective.

"Baby girl, we don't change," Pink said to thundering applause. "We help other people to change so they can see more kinds of beauty."

Damn straight, Pink. Damn straight.

You can watch the full speech in the video below:

body image parenting inspiration love mtv kids kindness children family responding well pink self-image self-esteem video music awards how to be a better human
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