Queen Latifah's An Inspiration At The SAG Awards

The Screen Actors Guild Awards are unique because they don't have a host — but the show's opening is always interesting and memorable. Each year, the cameras pan to various actors who provide anecdotes about their careers, and they range from sweet to funny to inspirational. Queen Latifah was an inspiration at the 2016 SAG Awards when she provided the best opener of the evening: "I have often been told I’m not thin enough, I’m not white enough, I’m not short enough, I’m not man enough. Dammit, I AM enough. I'm Queen Latifah and I'm an actor."

Latifah, who is nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries, has been wildly successful in a broad variety of fields, including music, modeling, and (of course) acting. But, she provided a powerful reminder that, no matter how successful and talented you are, there will always be people who try to bring you down by declaring that you're some iteration of "not good enough." Luckily, Latifah didn't listen to the people who doubted her — and thank goodness, because she would have missed out on an amazing career that has inspired women everywhere.

We should all adopt her mantra of "I am enough," because it's so important. The adjectives she listed were also significant, because they illustrated how ridiculous these criticisms are and pointed out that that no matter how tall, short, thin, curvy, or anything else you are, someone will take issue with it and turn it into a negative critique. Latifah hasn't let that stop her, and neither should we. Her words have already had a huge impact on viewers, who have posted their reactions on social media:

Bravo to Latifah for using her platform to send such an important message to fans and viewers — she used very few words, but they were powerful and memorable.