Pink takes home Video Vanguard Award at VMAs, performs medley of hits

Pink won big at this year's MTV Video Music Awards, taking home the network's Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award and delivering an inspiring message to her young daughter in the process.

After accepting the award Sunday from friend Ellen DeGeneres, Doylestown native Pink, 37, recalled in her speech a time when daughter Willow Sage, 6, called herself "the ugliest girl I know" and feared she looked like a boy.

Mom, of course, knew just what to do.

"I went home, and I made a PowerPoint presentation for her, and in that presentation there were androgynous rock stars and artists that live their truth and are probably made fun of every day of their lives and carry on," Pink told the VMA crowd in Inglewood, Calif., and MTV viewers  "[They] wave their flag, and inspire the rest of us. These are artists like Michael Jackson, David Bowie, Freddie Mercury, Annie Lennox, Prince, Janis Joplin, George Michael, Elton John … . So many artists."

Pink, real name Alecia Moore, added that she also had been given a hard time over her looks and being "too strong" throughout her life. But, as she told the VMA crowd (and her daughter), "we don't change, we take the gravel and the shell and we make a pearl."

"We help other people to change so that they can see more kinds of beauty," she said. "And to all of the artists here, I am so inspired by all of you. Thank you for being your true selves."

With her acceptance of the Video Vanguard Award, Pink joins honorees including Duran Duran, Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, and Rihanna. MTV launched  the award in 1984, and renamed it in 1991 for Michael Jackson.

Before accepting the award, Pink performed a medley of hits that included "Get the Party Started," "Don't Let Me Get Me," and "Raise Your Glass." Willow Sage, of course, was spotted singing along in the crowd: