Actress Ellen Page has landed roles that influenced pop culture like wildfire: Kitty Pryde in the 2006 film X-Men: The Last Stand, the quirky title character of the 2007 film Juno, the otherwise-ordinary Ariadne in Inception, and the comically sadistic spitfire sidekick Libby (alias “Boltie”) from Super. She has shown to be smart, laconic, down-to-earth, and yet full of life and expression when the role or the occasion calls for it.

On Valentine’s Day 2014, she spoke at the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Time To Thrive conference for LGBT youth, hailing the organization with profound voice-breaking sincerity. She articulated details, of the HRCF’s average work life, worries, troubles, fears—and that of the LGBT youths that they help. “I know there are people in this room who go to school every day and get treated like shit for no reason,” Page said, “Or you go home and you feel like you can’t tell your parents the whole truth about yourself… you worry about the future, about college or work or even your physical safety. And trying to create that mental picture of your life, of what on earth is going to happen to you, can crush you a little bit every day. It is toxic and painful and deeply unfair.” She continually referred to standing their and speaking as “a little weird” because of the industry she works in, how that industry is powerful enough to set standards for an entire culture that would be followed almost without question.