Jurnee Smollett credits her mother with helping her ''embrace'' her beauty.

The 33-year-old actress says her family have always been ''unapologetic'' about their ''non-Eurocentric beauty'', and has heaped the praise on her mother Janet for giving her the confidence to be comfortable in her own skin.

She said: ''She allowed us to embrace it all, own it, and be very unapologetic about our non-Eurocentric beauty.''

Jurnee also credits her mother with teaching her to love her hair by telling her there's no such thing as ''good hair''.

She added: ''My mom instilled us with such a healthy relationship with our hair. She reminded us that all hair is beautiful and never allowed us to use the term good hair. If you've got hair, you've got good hair.''

And now that she's older, the 'Birds of Prey' star appreciates the outlook her mother gave her, as she can now combat the ''narrow gaze'' that Hollywood has on beauty standards.

She said: ''There is this very narrow gaze of what is beautiful, and it's very detrimental and very tragic for a lot of people. And I think it's quite important for those of us who can to resist it and to tear it down, to dismantle the very systemic racism that exists in the beauty world.''

Jurnee also opened up on her decision to ''let go'' of people or things that are no longer ''servicing'' her, as she says she won't ''apologise'' for being herself.

In an interview with Vogue magazine, she explained: ''What in my life is not productive or nurturing, and how can I empower myself to let that go? Even if it means letting go of things or people who are not servicing me, I'm not going to apologise for being me. It's not my job to care what people's takeaways are about me.''