Pink lands cover of People magazine's 2018 'Most Beautiful' issue with kids

It makes perfect sense that Pink graces the cover of People Magazine's "Most Beautiful" issue. The 38 year-old pop star born Alecia Moore who is pictured on the cover with her son, Jameson Moon (15 months) and Willow Sage (six and a half) is in the midst of her Beautiful Trauma tour, which features a moving nightly set piece where she re-enacts her dramatic 2017 MTV Video Music Awards speech in which she explained to Willow that true beauty is how you feel inside.

"The thing about parenting is you never know if anything you're doing is working," Pink tells the magazine in the story according to excerpts released on Wednesday (Apr. 18). "That's been the most humbling thing for me. In my head, I sound amazing and then I turn around and her eyes are completely glazed over. I have no idea. We'll see."

The magazine renamed the issue this year. The annual event has honored Hollywood's most beautiful since 1990, and has evolved from a list of the "50 Most Beautiful" to "Most Beautiful Woman" and now "The Beautiful Issue."

In a statement released on Tuesday (Apr. 17) editor-in-chief Jess Cagle explained that "the issue is always a hit with audiences, advertisers and Hollywood because it celebrates all kinds of beauty, of course—beautiful souls as well as beautiful skin," noting that the change in the title of the issue is meant to "make clear that the issue is not a beauty contest. Nothing else has changed. As always it will feature beautiful women (and a few men) of all shapes, sizes and colors, and it will celebrate the most beautiful qualities of all: strength, humanity and artistry."

Before revealing Pink as this year's honoree, Cagle wrote that it would be a "woman who checks all those boxes. She’s a performer, mother and role model whose honesty, humor, confidence and sheer star power make her one of the most beloved and fascinating entertainers on the planet."

Pink tells People that her own "free range" upbringing in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, during which she rode bikes to school, played in the woods all day, climbed trees and did gymnastics was a "good" childhood, something she's aiming to give her children with husband Carey Hart as well. "I believe in affection," she says. "I believe in needs being met and faith being implemented, and I believe in letting your kids know they can count on you, and that you'll be there. My parents obviously did not believe in that and I worked out okay. I always tell Willow, 'I'm going to teach you the rules so that you'll know how and when to break them.' "

And, as she famously said in her VMA speech, she's also focused on raising the kids in a gender-neutral environment, because anyone can do anything in her mind. "[But] I feel like gender-neutral is in itself a label and I'm label-less," she says. "I don't like labels at all so I believe that a woman and a girl can do anything... And I believe that a boy can do anything. So I have boys that flip dirt bags and I have boy friends that wear dresses. It's all okay to me. It's whatever floats your boat. So that's the kind of house that we live in."

Pink will appear on pal Ellen DeGeneres' show on Wednesday to celebrate the honor, joking that "I feel more beautiful and I've decided that for the whole week that the magazine is out no one is allowed to look me directly in the eyes." Asked how she reacted when she found out about the cover shoot, P!nk says she "laughed out loud," then noted that Willow recently came to her and revealed that she still feels the same way about her looks as she did before Pink's moving speech. "Nothing that you did helped," Willow told her.

Getting serious, though, Pink says she'd tell her 13 year-old self that this moment is a sign of how things can be. "I love the way things are changing," Pink says. "I love that our perception of beauty has completely been knocked on its head. And there's nothing wrong with beautiful, and there's nothing wrong with beautiful on the inside. Beautiful on the outside, it's all different shades. It's all different sizes. It means whatever it means to you."

Watch Pink on Ellen.