Actress Gabourey Sidibe delivered an incredible speech at the Ms Foundation Women of Vision gala this week.
The Precious star admitted her own snobbery and discussed how her weight has affected her and others’ attitudes towards her.
She said:
“One of the first things people usually ask me is, ‘Gabourey, how are you so confident?’
“I hate that. I always wonder if that’s the first thing they ask Rihanna when they meet her. “RiRi! How are you so confident?” Nope. No. No. But me? They ask me with that same incredulous disbelief every single time. “You seem so confident! How is that?””
She also recalled how she was an unpopular and self-confessed “a**hole” at school, concluding:
“‘How are you so confident?’ ‘I’m an a**hole!’ Okay? It’s my good time, and my good life, despite what you think of me.
“I live my life, because I dare. I dare to show up when everyone else might hide their faces and hide their bodies in shame. I show up because I’m an asshole, and I want to have a good time. And my mother and my father love me. They wanted the best life for me, and they didn’t know how to verbalize it. And I get it. I really do. They were better parents to me than they had themselves.
“I’m grateful to them, and to my fifth grade class, because if they hadn’t made me cry, I wouldn’t be able to cry on cue now. If I hadn’t been told I was garbage, I wouldn’t have learned how to show people I’m talented. And if everyone had always laughed at my jokes, I wouldn’t have figured out how to be so funny. If they hadn’t told me I was ugly, I never would have searched for my beauty. And if they hadn’t tried to break me down, I wouldn’t know that I’m unbreakable.
She concluded: “So when you ask me how I’m so confident, I know what you’re really asking me: how could someone like me be confident? Go ask Rihanna, a**hole!”
