Alicia Keys is embracing the woman she is becoming.

In a recent interview with The Cut, the "A Woman's Worth" singer explained how she has arrived at a newfound sense of self-worth and enlightenment during the fourth decade of her life, as reported by PEOPLE.

"I love getting smarter. I love being more conscious. I love being aware of what I think," she explained. "I love being in touch with what I think and being comfortable knowing that what I know is the right thing for me, that I don't have to seek so much validation from everybody else to decide if that's a good thing for me or not."

According to the 15-time Grammy winner, "you get more beautiful as you grow older" because "your heart opens more" and "you have a quality about you that is so much stronger in a way."

Furthermore, she acknowledges how her career –which dates back to the noughties– has helped her redefine her standard of beauty. 

"It opened my eyes to how I didn’t feel comfortable or beautiful if I didn’t have my armor on, and if I didn’t have all my face and hair and pretty things and nice clothes on that somehow I was less than beautiful or just less than. I realized, like, Whoa, what’s underneath all that?'"

In 2016, the artist decided to ditch makeup, a move she continues to stand by today.

"I think it was just the awareness of how much we subscribed to social standards of beauty, and I didn’t really think of that before. I just hadn’t thought about it," she said.

Last year, during an interview with PEOPLE, the "No One" singer opened up on her lifestyle beauty brand, Keys Soulcare, and her decision to reintroduce herself to makeup.

"I get to determine what's beauty to me. Nobody gets to tell me what that is, and I can't tell anybody what that is either. That's why my relationship with [makeup and beauty] has come to the place where it is," she told the outlet.