Nation & World

‘Here I am’: Chelsea Manning releases first photo of herself after prison

Chelsea Manning released a photo of herself on Thursday on her second day out of prison.
Chelsea Manning released a photo of herself on Thursday on her second day out of prison. Twitter

World, meet Chelsea Manning.

Not the one wearing a long blonde wig, heavy eyeliner and dark lipstick in a grainy, black-and-white selfie published countless times by media outlets.

Chelsea Manning in an oft-used file photo.
Chelsea Manning in an oft-used file photo.

This is Chelsea Manning now, in glamorous makeup, a chic short hairstyle, a bold coral lip color and just a shadow of cleavage.

“Okay, so here I am everyone!! =P” she tweeted, clearly needing time to acquaint herself with emojis.

She released the new photo on Thursday, the day after she walked out of the military prison at Fort Leavenworth.

Manning, a transgender woman formerly known as Pfc. Bradley Manning, was convicted in 2013 of providing nearly 750,000 classified military and State Department documents to WikiLeaks. President Barack Obama commuted her 35 year court-martial sentence in January.

Documentary filmmaker Tim Travers Hawkins took Manning’s new photo, the ACLU told NBC News. Hawkins is making a documentary about Manning’s life after prison called “XY Chelsea.”

The Oklahoma native has not revealed where she is now but shared her first post-prison activities on social media, where she is @xychelsea on Twitter and xychelsea87 on Instagram.

“So, im already enjoying my first hot, greasy pizza,” she tweeted on Wednesday morning.

She and her companions raised a glass of bubbly, too.

She showed off new footwear, a pair of black Converse. (Social media applauded her product placement savvy.)

Transgender women showed off theirs, too, in solidarity.

This story was originally published May 18, 2017 at 3:37 PM with the headline "‘Here I am’: Chelsea Manning releases first photo of herself after prison."

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