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Ashley Judd's Women's March Speech Was Written By A 19-Year-Old Poet

"Not as nasty as a man who looks like he bathes in Cheetoh dust."

Ashley Judd's "I am a nasty woman" speech became one of the most defining moments at the Women's March on Washington on Jan. 21 thanks to a 19-year-old poet from Tennessee.

“My name is Ashley Judd and I am a feminist,” the 48-year-old actress began her speech in Washington D.C., interrupting documentary filmmaker, Michael Moore.

“I bring you words from Nina Donovan, a 19-year-old in middle Tennessee and she has given me the privilege of telling you what she has to say... I am a nasty woman,” Judd yelled to the crowd, which, according to reports, reached at least half a million marchers protesting President Donald Trump.

Ashley Judd attends the rally at the Women's March on Washington on January 21, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/WireImage)

Judd then performed a spoken word poem written by Donovan, which criticized Trump's history of bigotry against women, people of colour and immigrants, as well as the rise of extreme right-wing politics.

"Not as nasty as a man who looks like he bathes in Cheetoh dust," continued Judd. "A man whose words are a distract to America. Electoral college-sanctioned, hate-speech contaminating this national anthem. I’m not as nasty as Confederate flags being tattooed across my city."

"Maybe the South actually is going to rise again. Maybe for some it never really fell. Blacks are still in shackles and graves, just for being black. Slavery has been reinterpreted as the prison system in front of people who see melanin as animal skin. I am not as nasty as a swastika painted on a pride flag, and I didn’t know devils could be resurrected but I feel Hitler in these streets."

Watch the full speech below:

The video of Judd's speech went viral, garnering millions of views from women and men who shared Judd and Donovan's anger and fear about Trump's new administration.

According to News.com.au, Donovan, a sociology major at Nashville’s Columbia State Community College, said she is overwhelmed with the response her spoken word poem has received.

"The second [Trump] called Hillary a 'nasty woman,' I literally sat down that night and I wrote in my phone, 'I am a nasty woman,'" Donovan told news.com.au, referring to the final presidential debate last October. “I kept coming back to those words and I thought 'I have to finish this poem.'"

“It honestly took me a good month to write," she continued. "I kept tweaking it and changing things. The more I dug into the issues I was speaking about, I couldn’t stop writing."

Ashley Judd attends the rally at the Women's March on Washington on January 21, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/WireImage)

Donovan recounted that she first performed her poem at a spoken word event late last year, and Judd happened to be in the audience.

“[Judd] pulled a few of us aside and said 'I think your piece is going to be in the Washington D.C Women’s March' and I was like ‘What?! Is this a joke?'" Donovan said.

“She gave me her number and we texted back and forth. I gave her full permission to change anything and tweak anything and recite it how she wanted to.”

Donovan attended a Women's March in Nashville and said she watched Judd perform her poem on her phone in her car.

“I was just waiting for her to go on and when she started saying my words and I just burst into tears,” she said.

“I was like ‘Is this really happening? When am I going to wake up and this all be a dream?’ I really was surprised. Ashley is a famous actor. I knew it was going to get some attention, but I never anticipated it blowing up like it did, especially all over the world. I thought maybe have a little peak in D.C., but I did not think it would go international.”

Last December, Judd shared a Facebook video of Donovan reciting her "I am a Nasty Woman" speech. Watch it below:

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