P!nk, receiving the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award at the MTV VMAs, delivered a powerful, personal speech about beauty and gender, using a story about her 6-year-old daughter Willow. 

All the more touching she received it from Ellen DeGeneres ...

P!nk's strength is contagious. (Video still via MTV)

In response to her daughter saying, I'm the ugliest girl I know because she thinks she looks like a boy with long hair, P!nk told the VMAs audience she made a presentation for her daughter that included artists P!nk called androgynous and true to themselves, like Michael Jackson, David Bowie, Freddie Mercury, Annie Lennox. Prince, Janis Joplin, George Michael and Elton John.

P!nk said to her daughter:

So, baby girl, we don't change — we take the gravel and the shell and we make a pearl, and we help other people to change, so that they can see more kinds of beauty.

This speech, all day, every day: