The present work aims to understand the process of subjective construction of the first Empress of Brazil, Leopoldina de Habsburg, between the years 1810 and 1818, a period that includes her last years at the Austrian Court until her ascension as princess of Brazil. To this end, Leopoldina s letters addressed to her older sister, Maria Luísa de Habsburgo, are analyzed, mobilizing the categories of self-fashioning, by Stephen Greenblatt, and epistolary friendship, by Anne Vicent-Buffault. It is argued that the relationship of long-distance friendship, via correspondence, with Maria Luísa played a decisive role in Leopoldina s self-modeling, giving her the conditions to face the questions and challenges related to her melancholic condition and the assumption of her public role.