Natalie Portman Reveals 'One of the Most Inspiring Experiences' of Her Life

Natalie Portman is opening up about an experience that has made a huge impact on her life.

The 35-year-old pregnant Jackie actress has done a lot of work to help young women in developing countries access education, earning her a spot in People magazine’s 25 Women Changing the World.

“Such a huge percentage of the world’s girls don’t have access to school at all,” Natalie said in this week’s issue. “Many live in places where they’re punished for going to school or are threatened with violence for going to school. Until that changes, our world will be the unstable place it is.”

Natalie went on to describe her trip to a village in Kenya that didn’t always have secondary school available for girls.

“Last year I got to go to Kenya to visit one of the projects, it’s the first school for girls in the Maasai area – first secondary school – so there was no opportunity for these girls to have a high school education at all,” she added. “And now it’s the first graduating class so we went and met some of these women and they were so remarkable. It’s the most moving thing when someone gets something that I took for granted.”

Also pictured inside: Natalie showing off her baby bump while picking up groceries on Saturday (November 12) in Los Feliz, Calif.

Click inside to hear what else Natalie had to say about her trip…

“Being with these people, you leave and you’re like, ‘I need to go into my life with that amount of focus and energy and love and generosity and excitement,’” she shared. “It was one of the most inspiring experiences of my life.”