Michaela Coel, creator and star of E4's Chewing Gum, accepted the award for Best Scripted Programme at the 2017 Broadcast Digital Awards on July 5. On Tuesday, Coel tweeted out video of her speech at the podium, and it's inspirational, humble, and full of empathy.
Coel started out by thanking the cast, crew, and channel of Chewing Gum, before dedicating the award "to one person in particular." She goes on to describe a nameless woman without any source of empowerment, and encourages her to follow her dreams.
Read a transcript of her speech below:
This is for the girl who did not have the gift of being told that she would be ok doing what she loved. Whose mother was so failed by the world she couldn't tell you you could succeed in anything. So oppressed by the world she couldn't tell you that you had the right to be free within it. Whose mother was so ignored by the world she couldn't tell you that you could stand in the center of it.
That you, woman, could stand in the center of your family, of your own life, of a story. She simply didn't have the evidence. In many ways, it really rather sucks, to start with so many setbacks: poor, dark female. But from those setbacks, come a resilience, a hardiness, a perseverance that cannot be replicated. Find it in yourself, and there you will find your story already written. Thank you.
She captioned the video on Twitter: "Maybe there's some person out there who hasn't started following their dreams yet that should hear this."
Thumbnail photo by Filiz Tosun for Netflix
