Sophia Bush is speaking out about what body image means to girls all over the world, and why we need to empower our young girls in an age of Photoshop and media scrutiny.

The Chicago P.D. star opened up on Today about her favorite charity, I Am That Girl, and says it’s important for stars to communicate the fact that they don’t wake up perfectly coiffed, made-up and feeling good about the way they look.

“I’ve spent so much time talking to women about, ‘Hey, I may be on TV and I may be photographed for magazines, but I don’t think I’m perfect. I don’t wake up in the morning and look in the mirror and go, ‘Hey, I’m amazing!’ That’s not how it is. I’m a women and it’s a struggle for all of us,” she said. “And it took me until this point in my life at 31 to say, ‘Hey, yeah I’m going to embrace my body and own it for me, not anyone else. And I’m curvy. I’m not some rail-thin, 6-foot-tall runway model who was just born that way. I was born like this. And that’s A-OK.'”

Chicago P.D. and Chicago Fire recently partnered for a special two-night television event that focused on some of the country’s biggest tragedies.

“[Chicago Fire producer Dick Wolf] said, ‘It’s going to be intense. Imagine Oklahoma City. Imagine the Boston Marathon bombing. We have the ability to thank the people who are the ones who run toward [to help], not away.’ He really is so passionate about honoring first responders,” Bush said.

Image via YouTube