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Emeraude and I are seated in Times Square's Café Un Deux Trois. Since it's late in the afternoon, there's only a handful of people dining in the oversized bistro. Her long, dark, shampoo-commercial-worthy locks are styled straight, and light makeup highlights her defined brows, large, brown eyes, and plump pout. Outfitted in a nude-colored spaghetti strap tank top and stretch jeans, she'll later tell me that these, and a comfy heel, are her summer fashion staples. "I've always said your smile is your best accessory. When you're happy from within, you radiate that." Truer words were never spoken. The energy that emanates from this rising starlet is magnetic, and is supernova-bright. A master of the sultry-serious gaze captured in a number of her photos, Emeraude truly is the most captivating when she's smiling, and laughing –which she does a lot of during our time together. The 28-year-old is in Manhattan for People en Español's 20th anniversar y of their "100 Most Beautiful" issue and to do press for Shadowhunters. Life couldn't be better. But getting to this point took a fair amount of moxie and faith. The former beauty queen was living in Miami, starring in novellas like Voltea Pa'Que Te Enamores, when she realized that she wanted more for herself. "I decided to leave ever ything behind, to leave a job opportunity, and go to nothing, basically." She saved up enough money for four months of rent, rented an old car ("sometimes it wouldn't even turn on after I would go to my acting classes"), and relocated to Los Angeles "to start from scratch." After two months in L.A. and thirty auditions, she booked the role of Isabelle Lightwood, one of the leads in Shadowhunters' ensemble cast. The exciting news became a worldwide trending topic, she tells me. Based loosely on Cassandra Clare's popular series of fantasy novels, The Mortal Instruments, the TV series came with a built-in cult following when it premiered January 2016. Half-human, half-angelic, the Shadowhunters protect the human world from the demon world. "In this world, all the legends are true: the vampires, the werewolves, the warlocks." Though it's rooted in fantasy, Emeraude points out that they highlight real, serious issues —everything from sexuality, first loves, and family dynamics. The series has already been renewed for a third season, which begins filming this August. On June 5th, the second part of Season 2 returned. So, what can fans expect? "Season 1, we see Isabelle being strong, powerful. Season 2, we see her completely fall apart. She's become addicted to Yin fen, which we can kinda compare to heroin. In the first episode of Season 2B, you're going to see her hit rock-bottom. What you can expect in 2B is how she's going to gain her strength back, life back, and how the people around her are either going to be there to support her or not." Isabelle doesn't go through this in the book, Emeraude tells me, so she genuinely appreciates the showrunners doing something different and challenging her as an actress. Izzy is a strong woman, who is all about sisterhood and empowering women. "I just learned so much from the character…. In the books, she's not a Latina character, and being able to be on TV and play a character who's not Latina is a blessing. Even though we're not fully there, it's nice to have the media start seeing Latinas and stop boxing us up into these stereotypes that we're not." The super-fandom that comes with Shadowhunters has translated into a 1.2 million Instagram-following for Emeraude. "I never thought," she begins, her eyes wide in disbelief, "I would look at other people's Instagram and be like, I'm never going to get to a million followers." Having such a wide-reaching platform means being hyper-cognizant of what she puts out there since she wants to be a positive role model for her fans. "It's really nice to see how much they love the characters and