Tracee Ellis Ross dresses in car, accepts award, inspires us all

Tracee Ellis Ross lost her voice.

That wouldn't normally be a problem for a lot of people (as long as it came back) but since she's an actress, it meant that the production of her show, Black-ish, had to be delayed until she could talk. And that meant she almost missed an awards luncheon where she was receiving an award.

But don't worry guys, she made it. She just had to get dressed in the car. "I was not prepared to be here," she said during her acceptance speech at the Essence Black Women in Hollywood Awards Luncheon in Beverly Hills Thursday. "I got dressed in the car — I’m unclear if what I’m wearing is see-through or not. If it is, sorry. I work out a lot. I’m 43 and I did change my undies. Sorry. That was inappropriate."

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The rest of her speech — when she wasn't talking about her undies — wasn't just funny, it was downright inspiring. The actress and daughter of Diana Ross brought herself to tears while accepting the Fierce and Fearless awards. Here are just a few choice moments:

• "I was watching the Nina Simone documentary alone in my room and I said out loud to myself: ‘Why do we not know that this woman is beauty? She is beauty! Why did no one tell me this growing up? Why was her name not next to “beauty” in the dictionary?’ So thank you Essence, thank you for continuing to show us and the world our texture our beauty, all of it. To help redefine it for the world and just waking everybody up."
   
• "Perfect is not the goal. The beauty in the humanity. All of it. I actually believe that the goal is not always grace and dignity, but selfhood. We should all do what we can in our daily lives to remember that we are glorious and powerful and more than enough, as women of color and as humans. My goal is to make space for my selfhood. All of it. All of me, not just the parts I like or think that others like but all of it. I am committed to bringing back, by being messy."
   
• "I mean, come on! My boobs do not belong up here! They’re down here! When I wear the bra that makes it go up there it makes dents in my shoulders! This is where God put them! I think it’s OK!"
   
• "So about this Fierce and Fearless award, honestly I am often afraid. I was terrified when I lost my voice. But I’ve come to understand and listen to the fear. I walk towards it. I lean into it to find the information and things that it has to teach me— unless it says run and then I run. I run very fast and then I cry a lot and I text and I email..."
   
• "For all of the women that are swimming upstream in our culture of expectation, inequality, sexism and racism, my hope is that we will gloriously allow ourselves to be ourselves and to become limitless. The picture is changing. The template is expanding, because of us. We are in a time where our own freedom only needs a gentle touch to be awakened. ... I don’t always feel fierce and fearless, but I do feel like I’m a rock star at being human."

We 100% agree on the rock star at being human part, Tracee. And now we feel inspired to go run a marathon. Or something.

You can scroll through photos from the event below.