Paris Jackson Opens Up About Finally Embracing Fame at PEOPLE's Ones to Watch Party

The daughter of pop icon Michael Jackson, who died in 2009 when she was 11, says the realization she wanted to enter public life came as she approached high school graduation.

“I realized it would be a shame to waste the platform I was given,” she says. “Having the ability to go into the acting and fashion world, I just figured why not use that to make my platform bigger. That way, instead of helping the world one by one with patients, I could help the masses.”

Jackson is currently a recurring guest star on Fox’s Star, recently signed on as the face of Calvin Klein and will make her film debut alongside Amanda Seyfried in 2018’s Gringo. But the actress and model — who has a history of speaking out on social issues — says she feels most rewarded by the work she does as a newly announced ambassador for the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation.

“I feel very lucky to have gotten to fly to Africa and be a part of the work we’re helping make possible,” says Jackson, who was Taylor’s goddaughter.

And while being a public figure means a lack of privacy at times, Jackson says most fans are very “mindful” of approaching her when she’s out and about and she believes she’s figured out the key to maintaining a sense of being grounded while navigating Hollywood:

“The best advice I’ve been given is to be strategic in the mind, young at heart, and wise in the soul,” she says. “If you have those three things you can navigate pretty easily any path that you’re on.”