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Shay Mitchell Will Never Label Her Sexuality: ‘I Could Be 50 and Dating a Woman’

Shay Mitchell
Mitchell

Love has no labels! Shay Mitchell opened up about her sexuality in a candid new cover story for Cosmopolitan and explained why she’s not applying terms to herself.

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On her hit show Pretty Little Liars, her character, Emily, is lesbian, but in real life she doesn’t put herself in on category. “When I started, people were like, ‘What are you?’ I’m like, right now I’m dating a guy. I don’t know what it’s going to be in three years,” she told the mag, which she graces the cover of in a red hot swimsuit for the June 2016 issue. “You love who you love. Black, white, polka dot, that’s what my dad always said”

“I’m never going to label myself,” the 29-year-old actress continued.”I could be 50 and dating a woman and then what? I said I was straight and now I’m not?”

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Although she refuses to label her sexuality, she is absolutely branded as hard-working. Before Mitchell hit it big on PLL, the actress spent her days auditioning and her nights working bottle service at a club. “I have so much respect for waiters, waitresses, girls who work in clubs. It’s tough,” she said.”I’d have old guys saying, ‘You’re so pretty, why are you working?’ or, ‘Come live with me, honey.’ Like, what, so I can be taken care of? That’s the last thing that I want. What I wanted to say was, ‘[I work] so I will never end up with someone like you.’”

Shay Mitchell

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Now, Mitchell is starring alongside Jennifer Aniston and Julia Roberts in the new film Mother’s Day, maintaining her lifestyle blog, “Amore & Vita,” and finishing up the seventh season of PLL, which airs in June. It’s rumored to be the last for the long-running Freeform drama. As for her plans when she’s done running from A, “I’d rather have a company. I don’t want to be dependent on a call from my agent — taking projects I’m not OK with because I need to. To be honest, winning an Oscar is not one of my goals,” she said. 

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