Let Gina Rodriguez Make a Difference in Your Life With 1 Empowering Message

Gina Rodriguez has joined forces with Clinique for their empowering new Difference Maker campaign, which begs the question: can one change make a difference?

The answer is yes, and according to the Jane the Virgin star, that change is education. In her short but powerful video, above, Gina reveals the motivating role school played in her life, and why she's lucky her parents — including her father, an esteemed boxing referee — realized its importance from the get-go.

"I had a lot of things that I was up against," she recalls. "My skin color, my body type, where I came from. I had all of these challenges, but education was knocking all of them down." And now that she has a platform to inspire mass groups of people, Gina is working tirelessly to ensure that young adults experiencing similar obstacles don't fall victim to the "can't" mentality that plagues underprivileged communities.

"My life's purpose is to free someone from those invisible shackles," she states before growing emotional. "I go and I talk to high school students, grammar school students. I go to universities and talk. We need people to say, 'Listen, I know what you're going through. I know what you went through. I went through it, too, and it sucks.'"

But perhaps nothing is more powerful than her final words to the public, referencing her memorable Golden Globe acceptance speech in which she quoted her father's daily mantra: "You can and you will." Press play to watch the inspirational video for yourself, and then discover even more about Gina's journey to self-acceptance.