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When Taylor Swift took the stage to accept the (first ever!) Icon Award at the Teen Choice Awards on Sunday, she could have spoken to the crowd about anything. But she didn't start with a plug for her Lover album and she didn't dedicate the honor to her mom or BF Joe Alwyn. Nope, instead, Taylor took advantage of the millions of eyeballs on her to take a stand about a cause that's close to her heart.  

"First, I want to talk about Alex Morgan," Taylor started, nodding to her friend, the world-renowned soccer player who recently won the World Cup alongside her teammates. "The fact that she's here presenting this to me is such an honor. Not only winning the World Cup with her amazing teammates, but while they were winning the World Cup, they were also taking a historic stand in terms of gender equality, gender pay gap." You see, Alex and her teammates are currently fighting for equal pay in their sport (you can read more about their crusade here), with hopes that they can pave the way for women everywhere. 

This isn't the first time Taylor has used her platform for good, and in true Taylor fashion, she's bringing her fans under her wing on this one, too. "Please, please, please support [Alex] and her teammates because this isn't over yet, it's not resolved," she begged the crowd. "Get online, talk about it, let people know how you feel about it. Because what happened to them is unfair—it's happening everywhere and they are heroes and icons for standing up."

 

 

 

 

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Re-living our teens for a day while at #teenchoiceawards #meow

A post shared by Alex Morgan (@alexmorgan13) on Aug 11, 2019 at 8:51pm PDT

As if Taylor didn't already have our backs enough, she also spoke directly to the audience, insisting that it's OK to be a teen and mess up. "If anybody's a teen out there, I think one thing I wish I would have known as a teen is that mistakes are inevitable," she said, "I think sometimes you think if you try hard enough to make every decision perfectly, you think you can possibly ace life and never make any mistakes, but it's normal to make mistakes. I just want you to know that if you're out there and you're being really hard on yourself for something that's happened—messing up, feeling embarrassed—it's normal. No one gets through unscathed—we're all going to have a few scratches on us. We live in a crazy world and we're living in an insane time, please be kind to yourselves and stand up for yourselves, please."

What did you think of Taylor's TCA speech? Let us know in the comments!

by Jacqueline F. | 8/12/2019