Orange is the New Black’s Danielle Brooks opened up to People magazine about her journey towards self-love.

“Sometimes I’ll look at myself and be like, ‘Dang girl, you got a lot of stretch marks.’ But then I’m like, ‘That’s just the road map of my strength,’” she said for People’s 2017 Most Beautiful Woman issue. “They remind me of things that I’ve gone through. I need to just embrace them and celebrate them. For the most part, I find ways to embrace my body.”

She continued: “Sometimes I can brush it off. You know, tha haters. And sometimes it’s not always easy to do. But for me, I think it all starts with self, and how you feel about yourself that really matters. It doesn’t matter what other people think of you… I know for a fact that I am beautiful, and what I do know for a fact is that we are spirits, at the end of the day, regardless of how much melanin we have, or how many pimples we have, or how curly or straight our hair is. It’s really about what we have inside of us, that makes us who we are.”

As far as doing a photo shoot without makeup for People’s issue, she was a little hesitant at first:

“I knew that this moment was going to empower a lot of people, and a lot of people were going to feel like they could see themselves in me, and they could discover their own beauty. And that to me is what it’s all about,” she said. “We all have to find our way to leave a mark in this world, and if I could help one person know that they are beautiful, I’ve done my job.”