Jada Pinkett Smith Just Delivered a Touching Speech with Jaden Smith at Her Side

Photo credit: David Crotty - Getty Images
Photo credit: David Crotty - Getty Images

From Oprah Magazine

  • Jada Pinkett Smith accepted the Trailblazer Award at the 2019 MTV Movie & TV Awards, which aired on Monday, June 17.

  • Accepting the award next to her son Jaden Smith, 20, she inspired audiences to trailblaze much like she has.

  • The award was presented by her Girls Trip co-star Tiffany Haddish.


Jada Pinkett Smith accepted the Trailblazer Award at the 2019 MTV Movie & TV Awards-and as expected, she delivered quite a badass speech.

The award was presented by Pinkett Smith's Girls Trip co-star Tiffany Haddish, making the moment all the more special. “Her career has been one crazy girl’s trip," Haddish said as she introduced her. "She’s decided to raise the bar once again. Her Red Table Talk series is setting the standard for talk shows in this next generation..she’s not making a talk show, she’s making a show with real talk. To top it all off, she’s married to the real life prince."

Before taking the stage to accept the award next to her 20-year-old son Jaden Smith, a video montage featuring touching words from Alicia Keys and Queen Latifah aired. Keys said, “She’s a powerful voice for women…there’s not a soul that has ever met Jada and hasn’t been transformed by her." And Latifah added, "She’ll let you know how she feels...you can't tame Jada. She’s just real, Jada’s a real person.”

Seconds later, Pinkett Smith delivered a short but motivating speech. Read it in full here:

“It’s a trip because when MTV called me to receive an award for trailblazing, I was like alright now, I don't know if I deserve this quite yet but I'm really glad MTV thinks so. Thank you. Then I had to think, I said, Jada, why don’t you think you deserve this award? It's because I was comparing myself to all the many trailblazers that I admired. And I realized, okay, maybe we do have something in common. Often we applaud the trails people blaze in the external world that we can see, but rarely do we applaud the trails that are blazed in the hidden rooms of the mind that are full of uncertainty, false beliefs, and pain. It's these internal obstacles that must be challenged in order to muster the courage to forge new paths that we can see in the world. Every last person must do that at some capacity. So that means that every single person in this room is trailblazing, whether it's within or without. So as you honor me tonight, I want to honor all of you and I want to say, here's to us for all of our trailblazing. Keep it up and thank you."



"Jada has been a powerhouse since the beginning of her career and has achieved multi-hyphenate status throughout,” Amy Doyle, general manager of MTV, VH1, CMT, and Logo, said last week when the recipient was announced, per Entertainment Weekly. "She is the epitome of someone who is not afraid to challenge the status quo, and we are thrilled to present her with this year’s Trailblazer Award.”

The Trailblazer Award has only been awarded five times in the awards show's history, and is designed to "recognize game-changing creators with fresh and fearless voices in entertainment." Last year's recipient was Lena Waithe, while previous years saw Emma Watson, Shailene Woodley, Channing Tatum, and Emma Stone recognized.

Bow down to the queen of Red Table Talk.


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