Pink recalls the time when her 6-year-old daughter called herself ugly
Pink is using her voice to spread the message of true beauty to her supporters — starting with her daughter.
The 37-year-old singer stopped by The Ellen DeGeneres Show following her Aug. 27 appearance at the MTV Video Music Awards, where she gave an empowering speech during her acceptance of the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award (which Ellen DeGeneres presented her with).
“Out of the blue, she just said, ‘Mama?’ I said, ‘Yeah, babe?’ She goes, ‘I’m the ugliest girl I know,’ ” Pink recalled of the exchange between herself and daughter Willow Sage, 6, that she spoke of during her speech. “I was like, ‘What are you talking about? You’re incredible. I made you, you can’t say that!’ ”
“Actually, I didn’t say anything because I was so speechless and I didn’t want to ‘mom her’ and start preaching to her and not be effective at all, so I just stayed quiet,” she explains. “I said, ‘Why do you think that? Did someone say that to you? What’s happening?’ And she’s like, ‘I just look like a boy with long hair.’ I didn’t know what to say. And I went home, I cried, and I made this Word document.”
Pink’s Word document was intended as a presentation to her daughter about beauty and self-acceptance — something the “Just Like Fire” songstress is extremely passionate about, saying she “will not” conform to standards that she feels don’t fit her personality.
“I get my feelings hurt all the time,” she admits. “It doesn’t feel good to hear mean things about yourself, but if you’re human, you’re going to hear it. If you’re past the age of 12, you will, at some point, be heartbroken by someone else. So I’m just trying to make [Willow] more resilient.”
The mum of two also shared some adorable details about her and husband Carey Hart‘s second child — 8-month-old “meatball” son Jameson Moon.
“[People have] strong opinions about things that don’t affect their life at all,” Pink says of breastfeeding — something she has been extremely honest and open about on social media. “I’m feeding my kid … would you rather him scream? Because he’s very capable of that.”
This article originally appeared on PEOPLE.
