It wasn’t that long ago that Shay Mitchell was a cocktail waitress in Toronto, dreaming of an acting career. Then, in December 2009, it became a reality.

For the past six years, the 28-year-old has not only been thriving in Hollywood as one of the stars of ABC Family’s massively popular Pretty Little Liars, but she has also amassed nearly 16 million followers on social media, released two fashion lines, and recently published her first book.

“It is so insane,” Mitchell recently told BuzzFeed News in New York, where she was promoting Bliss, the novel she wrote with her best friend. “That I managed to put myself on tape to somehow get it to the director, to then book the show, to then do the pilot, to then get it picked up for six years! There were a lot of things that were holding me back, but knowing that I broke free of all of those and now it's six years later … I owe everything I have to the show.”

Since 2010, Mitchell has played Emily Fields, a high school student working in tandem with her three best friends — Aria Montgomery (Lucy Hale), Hanna Marin (Ashley Benson), and Spencer Hastings (Troian Bellisario) — to evade the homicidal “A,” who was finally unmasked in August’s midseason finale.

Amid the show’s more over-the-top, OMG-worthy twists and turns has been Emily’s struggle to embrace her sexuality in the small town of Rosewood, Pennsylvania. For her part, Mitchell has brought an honesty to Emily’s evolution and, in turn, earned the offscreen love of the show’s LGBT viewers — a symbiotic relationship that is close to her heart.

“For however long people are still having to deal with other people's ignorance towards their sexuality, I will be a voice to say, ‘Live your life as true as possible,’” said Mitchell, the passion rising in her singsong voice. “I will always be an advocate for wanting this next generation to be true to who they are. That will always be important to me.”

With Pretty Little Liars nearing the end of its run — the second half of Season 6 debuts in January 2016 and, although ABC Family has yet to confirm, the general sense is that Season 7 will be the show’s last — it’s become important for Mitchell to think about life after Emily. “I can't even fathom leaving this family we've built,” she said, placing a hand over her heart. “Every time I think about it, my eyes well up. It's once in a lifetime and I think we all recognize that. So going back into this season, it's going to be like a very sad countdown — but an exciting one as well. I know the other girls want to do projects that are different too, so it's going to be a very different mind-set going into this year.”