In a speech titled 'Many Hands,' Smith challenged the cult of individualism that defined her generation — the Gen X cohort that invented the word 'supermodel,' popularized 'celebrity' and 'lifestyle,' and became hipsters defined by the ways they weren't like everybody else. She traced her own evolution from a self-absorbed 21-year-old who believed graduation meant becoming 'one of the few' to someone who recognized how much she owed to others. This line was the philosophical turning point of the address. Smith argued that the fear of being subsumed by the collective — of losing the 'beloved outline of our individual selves' — is misplaced, because the very self we treasure was shaped by parents, teachers, friends, health care systems, and countless other forms of collective support. The individual is already a collaborative project.