Since the early years of her career, American artist Alecia Beth Moore (also known as Pink) has shown a rebellious and outspoken image to the public that later took a huge role in cementing her place in the music business. This attitude also came along with a constant activism, reflected in her support for LGBTQ+ rights and organizations such as PETA, UNICEF, Autism Speaks, and many others. In 2011, her life took a turn when she had her first child, Willow. 5 years later she gave birth to her second, Jameson.
If you watched the MTV Video Music Awards back in August or paid attention to social media the following day, you might have watched the emotional speech Pink gave after accepting the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award. The artist took the short time she got to tell a story about her daughter Willow, in which she told her mother: ‘I’m the ugliest girl I know,’ followed by ‘I look like a boy with long hair’. Although she was quite upset, she waited to get home and made a PowerPoint presentation of androgynous artists that were criticized every single day due to their appearances and still managed to sell millions of records and be known worldwide. The purpose behind this was to show how living your own truth and being whoever you want to be is invaluable. People everywhere were deeply moved by her message and she received lots of praise for it, especially for how good of an advice this could be for a child and the video has more than 2 million views on YouTube.
More recently, the What About Us singer once again spoke about the life she wants for her children, this time for The People:
“We are a very label-less household. Last week Willow told me she is going to marry an African woman. I was like: ‘Great, can you teach me how to make African food?’ And she’s like: ‘Sure mama, and we are going to live with you while our house is getting ready.’”
She also mentioned that she has seen gender-neutral bathrooms in a school and believes this is a great way for kids to have more of these important conversations.
Despite the fact that we are living in 2017, many people still raise their children in a very conservative way. What Pink is doing is just one more example of what should be done in order to assure that a kid can fully develop their own personality, gender identity, and sexual orientation. There is no point in telling a child to conform to society’s standards when they are just getting to know the world and want to do whatever they want. This kind of parenting behavior can not only make them hide who they really are but also to end up doing the same thing to their friends and classmates.
Luckily, thanks to more open minds (and the Internet), newer generations are now more able to express themselves in any way and are willing to spread this acceptance. Let’s raise a glass to every parent who is responsible for it! This would not be possible without them.
