Danielle Brooks has always been open about our need for more diverse representation when it comes to different body types — which is a good thing, then, that Brooks was rightfully named one of People's Most Beautiful.
In an interview for her photoshoot, Brooks said that while one particular part of her body has given her pause in the past, she's come to see it as something to celebrate.
"Sometimes I’ll look at myself and be like, ‘Dang girl, you got a lot of stretch marks,'" she told People magazine. "But then I’m like, ‘That’s just the road map of my strength.' They remind me of things that I’ve gone through."
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Brooks, who has previously written an essay for Refinery29 about why we need to see women of all shapes and sizes represented, said that she's come to embrace her own body.
"I need to just embrace them and celebrate them," she told People. "For the most part, I find ways to embrace my body."
That body confidence comes in handy when she has to deal with nasty comments on social media.
"Sometimes I can brush it off. You know, tha haters," Brooks told People. "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."
We may not all live in the public eye as Brooks does, but many of us can probably relate to feeling down about ourselves, or hearing negative comments about our bodies from the people around us — and that's exactly what makes her outlook so resonant.
“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," she told People. "It’s really about what we have inside of us, that makes us who we are.”