Pink tells her daughter she isn't 'ugly' in moving MTV speech

Pink used her MTV Video Music Awards acceptance speech to teach her daughter the importance of self-confidence.

The Just Give Me A Reason hitmaker told the audience at Sunday's (27Aug17) prizegiving that she was shocked when six-year-old Willow deemed herself "ugly" during a candid chat with her mom about her appearance.

"Recently I was driving my daughter to school, and she said to me, out of the blue, she said, 'Mama... I'm the ugliest girl I know,'" Pink began. "And I said, 'Eh?' She said, 'Yeah, I look like a boy with long hair,' and my brain went to, 'Oh my God, you're six; why? Where is this coming from? Who said this? Can I kick a six-year-old's a*s?'"

The singer, who was at the ceremony to collect the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award, decided to keep her initial thoughts to herself and instead put together a special presentation for the youngster, with information about the artists who have inspired Pink's career through the years.

"In that presentation were androgynous rock stars and artists that live their truth, (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 continued." These are artists like Michael Jackson, and David Bowie, and Freddie Mercury, and Annie Lennox, and Prince, and Janis Joplin, and George Michael, Elton John, so many artists..."

Pink then used her own tomboy physique, which Willow branded "beautiful", to prove she didn't need to fit the conventional standards of beauty to blaze a trail of her own in pop culture.

"I said..., 'When people make fun of me, that's (her boyish tendencies are) what they use. They say I look like a boy or I'm too masculine or I have too many opinions, my body is too strong,'" Pink explained. "And I said to her, 'Do you see me growing my hair?' 'No, mama.' 'Do you see me changing my body...? Do you see me changing the way I present myself to the world...? Do you see me selling out arenas all over the world?' 'Yes, mama.'

"'OK, so, baby girl, we don't change,'" the mother-of-two stated. "We take the gravel in the shell and we make a pearl, and we help other people to change, so they can see more kinds of beauty."

Pink concluded her speech by thanking her fellow artists for "being your true selves and for lighting the way for us", before adding one final reminder for young Willow.

Directly addressing the tot, who was cheering on her mom from the audience, Pink said, "And you my darling girl, are beautiful, and I love you."

Willow was joined by her father, former motocross racer Carey Hart, to support the singer at the Californian ceremony.

After Pink's moving message, event host Katy Perry commented, "I can't even. I have absolutely no words about Pink's performance except these: I am shooketh (sic). I am dead... I am crying, she's iconic."