13 Times The 'Glamour' Women Of The Year Awards Gave Me Life

Females are strong as hell.

Last night I attended the Glamour Women of the Year Awards Ceremony.

Rachel W. Miller / Via Instagram: @the_rewm

I've been reading Glamour pretty religiously for about 15 years, which means I've read 15 Women of the Year issues... but I had never put a ton of thought into this ceremony aside from reading the brief recap of it that is always in the December letter from the editor. When my coworker offered me her ticket to the ceremony a couple weeks ago, my love of the magazine made me want to go. But yesterday, I was feeling pretty blah about doing anything, and considered bailing. I finally decided to suck it up and just go and... HOLY SHIT, I'm so glad I went.

The word "inspiration" gets tossed around a lot these days, but I walked away from this ceremony feeling beyond inspired. I basically spent the entire evening humming "females are strong as hell" while low-key weeping.

Here were some of the standout moments...

1. When Amy Schumer made fun of women's magazines in her opening.

Larry Busacca / Getty Images for Glamour

Larry Busacca / Getty Images for Glamour

"I make fun of women's magazines because it's easy and it's fun and they write hostile articles... like 'How To Trick Your Stomach Into Thinking You Ate That Week!' or 'How to Make Your Pussy Smell Like A Christmas Ornament!'"

I was sitting there like, "DAAAAAAAAMN. I did not expect to hear the word pussy here tonight!"

(And also, co-signed.)

Watch the video of her set here.

2. When Glamour's editor-in-chief Cindi Leive mentioned that the eight tribute films we'd see about the honorees throughout the evening were all directed by women.

Larry Busacca / Getty Images for Glamour

"So, Hollywood, next time you say there are no women capable of directing movies about superheroes, well... here are eight who have already done just that."

YASSSSSS.

(Another great line from her speech: "Yes, Congress is stuck at just 19% female — I believe the technical term is 'sausage fest'...")

3. When Lupita Nyong'o took the stage to present Misty Copeland with her award.

Larry Busacca / Getty Images for Glamour

OK, maybe I was the only one, but I didn't realize that all of the honorees would be introduced by amazing celebrities. When Lupita came out to present Misty's award, I kind of lost my shit because of all that #blackgirlmagic. (Also, the event was like Christmas because I never knew which celeb would come out next, or which amazing woman they'd be introducing!)

4. When Raven Wilkinson spoke in the video about Misty Copeland.

Lily Baldwin youtube.com

The 80-year-old African-American ballerina paved the way for Misty Copeland in a lot of ways. Watch the whole video here if you're in the mood for a good cry. (Kerry Washington also appeared in the video, NBD.)

5. When Misty Copeland thanked her mentor Susan Fales-Hill for showing her "what it was to be a strong black woman, and stand on your own, and stand for something."

Larry Busacca / Getty Images for Glamour

6. When honoree Cecile Richards mentioned that her mom — former Texas Governor Ann Richards — had stood on that stage accepting her own Woman of the Year award 24 years prior.

Larry Busacca / Getty Images for Glamour

I lived in Houston for four years and I am so here for badass Texas women and also shout-outs to moms. I cried.

7. Every time the young women in the balconies went wild.

Nicholas Hunt / Getty Images for Glamour

Cindi Leive mentioned in her speech that the young ladies in the balconies were from various (badass) organizations for girls, and they added such amazing spirit to the evening. (Later in the ceremony, Sophia Bush and Ellie Goulding took to the stage with a group of young women from The Girl Project, pictured above.) The young ladies in the balconies went crazy every time their favorite celebs made cameos in the films (they loved Beyonce and Laverne Vox) and a lot of the speakers addressed them directly with advice and calls to action, which led to more cheering. Their excitement was awesome and gave me hope for the future.

8. When Selena Gomez ushered these six women off stage by saying, "Thanks, girls!"

Larry Busacca / Getty Images for Glamour

Those ~girls~? Former Women of the Year honorees Madeleine Albright, Samantha Power, Iman, Liya Kebede, Billie Jean King, and Serena Williams. I thought the "girls" moment was super endearing, especially because when the group exited the stage, Selena and Madeleine walked together with their arms around each other's waists.

9. When presenter Seth Meyers told the young women in the audience to "never waste a second of your time on a man who doesn't want your input and advice."

Larry Busacca / Getty Images for Glamour

(Also, Seth, if you want my input and advice... I think we should run away together.)

10. When Judith Light introduced Caitlyn Jenner.

Larry Busacca / Getty Images for Glamour

Larry Busacca / Getty Images for Glamour

Maybe I just have a special place in my heart for Judith Light because she was always my favorite judge on Law & Order: SVU, but I found her intro so incredibly heartfelt and authentic. After the tribute video ran, Judith stood there with tears in her eyes and said, "Caitlyn, you are strong. You are brave. And you belong on this stage." Then she said "Please welcome Glamour Woman of the Year, Caitlyn Jenner" — with such joy and happiness as she said the word "woman" — and I found myself desperately wishing there was a sobbing heart-eye emoji so I could properly express my feelings on Twitter.

11. When Caitlyn Jenner talked about getting her driver's license.

Larry Busacca / Getty Images for Glamour

So at this point in the evening, I was basically just a puddle of mascara in a leopard-print skirt, and then Caitlyn made her speech, and it included this tidbit:

"And to Glamour magazine, I gotta tell you a story quickly. I haven't been on the airlines in over a year because I didn't have authentic I.D. And finally last week, I got my driver's license. Picture and gender marker 'F.'" [The crowd went wild at this; I was torn between applauding and wiping my tears.] "So it's always the little things in life that really you notice. And I'm sitting on the plane, and for the first time reading Glamour magazine and not having to fold the cover over so nobody could see what actually I was reading. And I had that thing open beautifully and just reading through Glamour magazine was absolutely great."

You can read her entire speech here and watch part of it here.

12. When Reese Witherspoon told it like it is.

Larry Busacca / Getty Images for Glamour

Reese is on the cover of the Women of the Year issue, and her speech focused mostly on how hard it is to get studios to make movies about women, where women are the hero of the story. And she called out one line in particular that she sees in scripts regularly, and that she hates:

"Where was our Sally Field in Norma Rae or Sigourney Weaver in Alien or Goldie Hawn in, you name it, any Goldie Hawn movie: Overboard, Wildcats, Private Benjamin? These women shaped my idea of what it meant to be a woman of strength and character and humor in this world. And my beautiful, intelligent daughter, who is 16 years old now, would not grow up idolizing that same group of women. Instead, she'd be forced to watch a chorus of talented, accomplished women Saran wrapped into tight leather pants, tottering along on very cute, but completely impractical, shoes turn to a male lead and ask breathlessly, 'What do we do now?!' Seriously, I'm not kidding. Go back and watch any movie, and you'll see this line over and over. I love to ask questions, but it's my most hated question.

"I dread reading scripts that have no women involved in their creation because inevitably I get to that part where the girl turns to the guy, and she says, 'What do we do now?!' Do you know any woman in any crisis situation who has absolutely no idea what to do?"

And everyone died laughing because it's true AF.

You can read it her entire speech here and watch part of it here here. (It's really worth a read.)

13. When the women of Charleston were honored.

Larry Busacca / Getty Images for Glamour

As I mentioned earlier, I didn't know who the presenters were, and I didn't immediately know whose award they were presenting. When Viola Davis came out, I was more excited by her fabulousness than anything else.

And then she started her speech: "I was born in St. Matthews, South Carolina, just an hour north of Charleston."

And my heart dropped because I knew that this was going to be the most heartbreaking part of the evening. She went on to talk about the massacre at the AME Church on June 17, 2015 and then introduced the video, which you can watch in full below:

Marta Cunningham youtube.com

Alana Simmons, Nadine Collier, Bethane Middleton-Brown, Felicia Sanders, and Polly Sheppard took the stage to the only standing ovation of the night.

Larry Busacca / Getty Images for Glamour

They each took a minute to speak about forgiveness and I — along with pretty much everyone else in the audience — just sat there in awe, sobbing.

You can read more about all of 2015's Women of the Year and see more videos from the ceremony on Glamour.com!