Suhani Jalota, a women’s health activist, researcher and entrepreneur, met Meghan Markle two years ago at Glamour’s 2016 College Women of the Year Awards luncheon. Here, she describes her early impressions of the woman who would soon become a royal.

Everyone was rushing to take photos with her, but I didn’t know who she was. I’d never seen Suits before. Meghan Markle was beautiful, yes, but she didn’t seem like a typical “actress” to me. She was approachable, enthusiastically talking with a small group of people about subjects like women’s empowerment. I took a selfie with her, we quickly exchanged smiles, and then we took our seats.

We were both attending an awards luncheon in New York City celebrating the 2016 Glamour College Women of the Year—and I was being honored, along with ten other young women, for my work on menstrual health in India. A year prior, I founded the Myna Mahila Foundation (or Myna for short), a startup in a Mumbai slum that employs women to make their own pads and educate other women on the importance of menstrual hygiene. Now, Myna helps 10,000 women per month and has made more than 500,000 pads.

At the lunch, Meghan learned about my work, including that 50 percent of women in India were using unhygienic methods, like old rags and leaves, to manage their cycles. I didn’t know then that I’d struck a chord with Meghan—and that the selfie we took together would lead to so many life-changing events, including, yes, an upcoming royal wedding.

A few months after the Glamour event, I got an unexpected email: Meghan said she loved meeting me and that she wanted to visit me and the women at Myna in the slum. We were all so excited and couldn’t really believe it. And she was true to her word: On a Skype call before her visit, we talked about the challenges the women in the slum face every day, and she took tons of notes. Meghan’s humility inspired me; I saw in her face that she was willing to learn and listen.

I confess that I watched a few episodes of Suits before Meghan arrived, and while we were excited to host her, we were also nervous. I started to realize how renowned she was in the U.S., and read about the fanfare surrounding her and Prince Harry. We were anxious to make sure the visit ran smoothly. But when Meghan visited Mumbai five months later, I immediately remembered the down-to-earth person I’d met.

Meghan, dressed simply, had such a positive, genuine vibe that I instantly felt comfortable talking to her. When we reached the slum, the women greeted her with a traditional Indian welcome; they draped her in a sari, bangles, bindi, and a blouse. Someone rushed to find the right-sized shoes for her along with a matching purse.

Over the next two days, Meghan sat on the floor of our headquarters talking to the community. She ate the food made by local women in the slum without hesitation; she spoke with young girls who miss school days during their cycles; she met with female vegetable vendors to learn about how they started their own businesses and how they deal with their cycle while working. Normally when outsiders visit us they ask predictable questions, like: why don’t you use menstrual cups here, or reusable pads? (These methods are unhygienic in areas with lack of water and direct sunlight). I was surprised to find that Meghan already had in-depth knowledge about the challenges in this low-income community. She made it clear that she wasn’t visiting to just talk about the problems; she was interested in figuring out solutions.

My respect for Meghan only grew after I witnessed an interaction between her and a photographer who wanted to take a photo of her standing in her sari in front of a contrasting image of a garbage dump. At Myna, we are skeptical of people coming in to make what is bad look even worse, but Meghan suggested instead that the photographer take photos with the women and girls, and capture all their laughter and joy. It was an unusual and refreshing change.

We didn’t speak about Meghan’s busy schedule, nor did she rush her visit. When she left, she had a huge fan following in the Govandi slums and at Myna. She then wrote a well-informed op-ed in Time about how the period stigma affects women all over the world. Meghan told us that she would try to support Myna in any way that she could, and she has truly kept her word.

Last year, I received the Queen’s Young Leader Award for Myna at the Buckingham Palace and met Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth, and connected with other incredible change-making youth across the Commonwealth. And Meghan’s visit was a turning point for us that’s only gotten more surreal: earlier this year, Kensington Palace informed me that Myna would be one of the seven charities Meghan and Prince Harry selected to receive donations in lieu of them receiving wedding gifts.

I was also invited to the Royal Wedding, along with a few of the women I work with. I’m still in shock, but I keep thinking about how many more women we will be able to impact with the couple’s generosity.

When I told my grandparents I’d be attending the Royal Wedding, they cried and told all their friends; getting invited to a royal wedding in the UK is a big deal for Indian families, especially for those that lived under British rule. I’m more excited for the women going from the slum than myself: They have never even left India before, and most have not even stepped out of Mumbai. This is a chance for their worlds to get a little bigger.

What do I want the world to know about Meghan as she embarks on one of the biggest days of her life? She has shown me that she isn’t working on menstrual hygiene and women’s empowerment issues because they’re “trendy.” Meghan dedicates herself to these causes because she genuinely cares about them, and wants to help disadvantaged and vulnerable women.

The Meghan Markle I know prefers to be called Meghan instead of Ms. Meghan Markle. The Meghan I know does her research. The Meghan I know is grounded and loves to get her hands dirty. The Meghan I know is true to herself, and true to the causes she cares about.

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