As one of the leading stars of Suits and Prince Harry’s other half, Meghan Markle is one of the most visible multiracial women in the world. So when the actress spoke up about embracing her skin tone—and loving her freckles, in particular—it rang as a powerful, far-reaching statement.

In a recent interview, Markle recalled growing up with a Caucasian father and African-American mother—first becoming conscious of her skin tone at age 7 and, later, of learning about colorism in an African-American studies class at Northwestern University. “It was the first time I could put a name to feeling too light in the black community, too mixed in the white community,” she explained of being stuck with the “ethnically ambiguous” label, most often at castings.

Now, Markle has emerged as an advocate for celebrating a more diverse range of skin tones—a movement also making headway on recent fashion runways from New York to Paris—adding that for her, individuality shines through in her freckled complexion. “To this day, my pet peeve is when my skin tone is changed and my freckles are airbrushed out of a photo shoot,” she said. “My dad told me when I was younger: ‘A face without freckles is a night without stars.’ ” There’s a beautiful truth in that.