Yara Shahidi has a lot to be thankful for.

She’s enjoying a very fruitful career in the entertainment industry and is well on her way to educational greatness. In case you missed it, Shahidi is slated to attend Harvard University in the fall.

But despite her success, the 17-year-old still has to actively work to keep her fears in check. And she turns to a very timeless writer and influencer when the fear of failure creeps up.

“I recently read Giovanni’s Room [written by James Baldwin] and there was a whole thing on identity and embracing who you are, really based on these characters who feared erasing who they are,” she said during an interview with Teen Vogue. “What I really appreciated about Giovanni’s Room is the overarching message is about embracing every facet of your identity, and with that you embrace what you deem as failure and you reassess it.”

Shahidi, who is currently taking a year off to work on the Black-ish spin-off College-ish, also weighed in on the role of failure and how we should perceive it.

“I think ultimately, the goal is not to say failure gets easier, failure gets more fun, falling is the best thing ever — but if anything, what I like to say is when you build your support network, when you find rituals that calm you down, you find moments to take care of yourself and not stew in the failure, then you’re not really afraid of falling because you know you won’t fall too far anyway.”

Way to handle adversity, Yara.