Different is beautiful.

That was the message Ellen DeGeneres chose to share when she took the stage at the Teen Choice Awards Sunday to accept the award for Choice Comedian. The 57-year-old, who was celebrating her seventh wedding anniversary to wife Portia de Rossi that night, used the moment to empower those who may feel like they don’t fit in.

“It feels good to be chosen, but there was a time in my life that I was not chosen,” DeGeneres told the crowd at the USC Galen Center in Los Angeles. “I was the opposite of chosen, because I was different. And I think I want to 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. Be proud of who you are.”

“The most important thing I want to say is just really embrace who you are, because being unique is very, very important and fitting in is not all that matters,” she went on. “It’s being unique and being who you are.”

Bravo.

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