It took a while, but 'Pretty Little Liars'' Shay Mitchell embraces her Filipina heritage

Shay Mitchell loves 'You,' her new TV seeries.

SELF-HATRED is a common malady for people of color who grow up in a white environment.

Even someone who seems to have everything,  seemingly in control, like actress Shay Mitchell, has fallen into that trap as she admits in her Youtube channel.

Her mother is a Filipina and her father is Irish. Growing up in Canada, she felt the pressure to fit in to the extent of bleaching her hair blonde at one point in your life.

Mitchell, who just wound up a seven-year stint as Emily Fields in Pretty Little Liars is keeping herself busy with projects lined up.

The 30-year-old actress is hard at work on her upcoming Lifetime series, You, and she exclusively dished all about the psychological thriller to ET.

“It’s juicy… It still has all those elements that PLL had with it being sort of a mystery, there’s a romance part to it and it’s just exciting,” Mitchell explains. “It’s definitely going to have those elements. I think it’s a little bit more mature… It deals with a lot of crazy things like PLL did, but it’s a different storyline. If you loved PLL, you’re going to absolutely love You."

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Ýou is based on Caroline Kepnes’ best-selling novel of the same name, and Mitchell says following up her seven-season run on Freeform with another show based on a book is a major plus.

“I’ve had good luck with that in the past, and it’s just a show that I would be so excited to watch, whether I was on it or not,” she says. “It’s gonna stay fairly close (to the book) I'd say, the same way that we did with PLL. There’s a common thread from the book that goes into the show and I think the same is true for You.”
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