Actress Priyanka Chopra has long been a champion for women. She openly advocates equal opportunity across genders, and tackles feminist issues head-on . And as of today, the India-born actress will officially be the new face of Pantene's "Strong Is Beautiful" campaign — and it holds more meaning than you may think."Being a proud feminist helped me come to terms with who I am and what my beauty stands for," Chopra tells Refinery29 exclusively. "For eons, women have been told to look a particular way to please the eye of the other gender, [whereas] I think beauty needs to be about appealing to yourself. In [this new era of politics ], beauty needs to be about empowering women. You can say, 'My hair feels beautiful and looks beautiful and I can own that, because it’s about me and how it makes me feel — not about how someone else reacts when they see me.'"It's that same conviction that originally drew Chopra to Pantene. (Last week, it tapped fighter Ronda Rousey for the same campaign.) "Pantene empowers people to be strong. Women have been told for years that if you are strong and outspoken, then you are 'wrong.' Pantene tells you that it’s alright to be strong."