2014 has been a wonderful year for Lupita Nyong’o. She won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar in March for her role in the movie 12 Years a Slave.

She can celebrate another achievement today. People has named her 2014’s Most Beautiful Woman.

Though she grew up thinking that “light skin and flowing, straight hair” made women desirable, World’s Most Beautiful Woman Nyong’o, 31, tells PEOPLE that her mother “always said I was beautiful. And I finally believed her at some point.” The Oscar winner, who’s now a face of Lancôme Paris, is excited for this honor in part because of “all the girls who would see me … and feel a little more seen.”