She's a woman of color portrayed as a protagonist

Mariana, and the actress who plays her — Cierra Ramirez — is a proud Latina woman. And she doesn't play the bad guy. That's worth celebrating.

Mariana does STEM

Mariana faced discrimination in her STEM club in school... but she still winds up going to MIT.

She's feminine

Who says women can't be powerful and rock pink lipstick? Not Mariana.

She's multi-talented

Mariana can sing and dance. She plays Juliet in her brother's musical rendition of Romeo and Juliet and she leads her own dance team at one point in the show.

Don't forget, this girl is also a math and science whiz.

She's not afraid of shutting men down

Her future boyfriend takes her on a date to a Mexican street fair. Mariana assumes he is being racist and assuming that just because she is Latina she must be Mexican. At the time, Mariana also has her hair dyed blonde and she thinks he is trying to get her to feel insecure about her heritage and her dyed hair.

None of these assumptions are true, but it lets viewers know Mariana is not afraid of shutting someone down for the right reasons.

Social justice advocate Mariana is a thing

When the high school she and her siblings attend is threatened to become a private school, Mariana starts a movement to prevent that from happening.