This is the picture from the PHB, if you'll look closely at the eyes and face you can tell it's the same picture as from the novel cover, but with the shading a bit lighter. And by the way neither Italians or Spanish started off with dark hair and darker complexion, it wasn't until after the Moors (arabic) invaded southern Europe and occupied and interbred with the natives that they took on those features. Before that they were pale haired and mostly fair skinned. And hispanics by the way are nothing more then Native American (be it meso, or south american) mixed with european (ie spanish) stock in the first place. So either way, regardless of whether they were designed to look Hispanic or Mediteranean they wouldn't be entirely european in either case.
And by the way Asians can have pale skin, it doesn't make them white. I think they made her pale because of the whole pierced goth look she had going on, I doubt it was to make her look more white.