Both Moana and the actress who plays her are growing up!

Auliʻi Cravalho, the star of Disney’s 2016 animated hit Moana and its new sequel (in theaters November 27) is “so grateful to be coming back” to its pioneering chief, she tells PEOPLE. “My entire career as a young artist began with this character.”

The Hawaii native, now 24, was 14 when she was chosen from hundreds of up-and-coming stars for the voice role and 15 when she took on the role. Return for the long awaited Moana 2says Cravalho, means “this whole decade I can really look back on the great growth that I’ve gone through.”

While the first film “focused on connecting with the past,” she continues: Moana 2 “It’s about connecting with the future and all the things that could come.” And in her full-circle moment, she returns to the figure that launched her career: Cravalho – currently starring as Sally Bowles in “Broadway.” Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club and executive producer of the live-action adaptation Moana Adaptation – is both looking back and looking forward.

“It feels like Moana and I have grown together in our growth together, and that’s amazing,” she says. The new film is one of the few “in Disney history where a Disney princess was allowed to age.” And so my voice has changed since I played her when I was 15, and now her voice is a little different. The songs I sing also show another side of me.”

Again with Dwayne Johnson as the mischievous demigod Maui, Moana 2 also brings back voice actors Temuera Morrison, Nicole Scherzinger, Rachel House and Alan Tudyk – an authentically Polynesian community that Cravalho calls them “Moana ohana,” or family. “We initially thought this would be an animated series that would come out on Disney+,” she recalls. “And after we re-watched a lot of the footage and started recording, we realized, ‘This deserves to be performed in a theater.'”

The new film also features Moana’s little sister Simea (voiced by Khaleesi Lambert-Tsuda) and “a whole new crew that’s on this journey,” Cravalho teases with a grin. “If you thought Moana went way beyond the reef in the first movie, you have no idea how far she’ll go in this movie.”

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What has the beloved character taught her after storming into Hollywood and sharing Moana around the world? “From the first film I made, I realized that you can be the hero of your own story,” she says. An even better takeaway for young Disney fans: “You don’t need a love interest to complete your story arc.”

And because they represent a “celebration” of her Hawaiian heritage and real Polynesian history, the films will always hold a special place in Cravalho’s heart. The world of Moana and its ever-expanding horizons “really taps into the incredible knowledge we have as an indigenous culture.”

Moana 2 hits theaters on November 27th.