Shay Mitchell reveals the telling 'Pretty Little Liars' question she never gets asked anymore

In the seven years that Shay Mitchell has been playing Emily Fields on "Pretty Little Liars," she's noticed a difference in the kinds of questions she gets asked during interviews.

Mitchell's character has grappled with her sexuality throughout the series' storied run, and Fields' identity as a sexually-active, queer, young woman garnered Mitchell questions that focused purely on one thing: Kissing other women.

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"It's also interesting to see the change when I first started the show to now," she told me recently over the phone. "I don't get asked that many questions [anymore] that are like, 'How is it to kiss a girl?' Those questions aren't being asked anymore."

Instead, she's getting more frequent questions about the impact that her portrayal of a gay teenager has had on "PLL's" primarily young, female viewers. And that, she implies, speaks volumes about the advancement of LGBTQ representation on TV.

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"The impact that it has had -- that I've seen -- has been amazing," she explained to us. "Having young girls and boys coming up to me and saying, 'This is incredible, it's helped me be able to open up a conversation with my parents or my friends. It's made it easier, because we're watching the show in our living room and it just came up more organically [than it otherwise would've].' I really love that. I always say, 'It's one thing to be on an entertaining show, but it's another to have a small impact on people's lives.'"

What's been so important about Mitchell's tenure as Emily Fields is that she and the show's writers have taken the character on a realistic, careful and complicated journey to becoming comfortable in her own skin.

"She has found her own," Mitchell, 30, said of her character. "At the beginning, Emily was trying to be who she thought her mom or the other girls knew her to be, but she really was this other person. She's a really strong, independent character, and I think that we got to see that in the end."

Like her character, Mitchell has also gone on her own journey as an actress during the seven-year run of "Pretty Little Liars," which she called a total "blur." The star told us that the series finale is simultaneously the "ultimate ending" and "a new start" as she looks towards a future without "Pretty Little Liars."

"It's exciting," she said of the possibilities that could open up for her now that the show is ending. "I just want to keep doing things that I'm passionate about and that I love."

One of those things is partnering with Stella Artois for the "Host One to Remember" campaign, for which she'll throw a rooftop party in New York City on Tuesday.

"It's everything that I am," she said of the collaboration. "I love hosting, I love having friends over, I love cooking and I love making things fun."

Mitchell will employ her own relaxed approach to hosting parties for the Braderie-inspired soiree.

"It's all about the details," she said about hosting. "It's about putting your own special touch on things that don't have to be so fancy. [...] You can walk away from a party or a lunch at my house and be like, 'Wow, she did add this one thing that I loved!' And that's what you're going to remember."

"I'm really excited for this event, and it's exactly who I am organically," she explained. "If that's my job, then I'm pretty lucky."

We think so, too.

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