Ellen DeGeneres won the Teen Choice Award for Choice Comedian last night, because she’s Ellen DeGeneres and who doesn’t love her? But her speech was particularly good – in it, she encouraged teenagers to just be who they are:

“I wanna say also it feels good to be chosen but there was a time in my life that I was not chosen. I was the opposite of chosen because I was different, and I think I wanna make sure that everyone knows that what makes you different right now, makes you stand out later in life. So you should be proud of being different, proud of who you are.”

I don’t know how many times kids have to be told that message before it sinks in – I think for a lot of us it never does. But coming from Ellen, it’s particularly trustworthy advice.

[h/t Buzzfeed]

[YouTube]

Original by Rebecca Vipond Brink