--- title: Hillary Clinton Gives Heartwarming Response to Humans of New York Post description: The former Secretary of State issued some words of encouragement canonical: https://time.com/3945811/hillary-clinton-humans-of-new-york-gay/ author: Dan Stewart article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-04T17:29:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-14T23:18:26.000Z og:title: Hillary Clinton Commented on a 'Humans of New York' Post og:description: Sent a heartwarming message og:url: https://time.com/3945811/hillary-clinton-humans-of-new-york-gay/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Hillary Clinton Commented on a 'Humans of New York' Post twitter:description: Sent a heartwarming message twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Hillary Clinton Comments On Viral 'Humans of New York' Photo > Sponsored content. 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It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-worth-2026q3/newsletters?i=8de62701-4bda-45c2-8d2a-a0eb5da32a32&cr=time-nl-worth-2026q3-v1) ## Video: 30 Under 30: Brandon Stanton, Creator of 'Humans of New York' [Watch (HLS stream): 30 Under 30: Brandon Stanton, Creator of 'Humans of New York'](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/zT7Xss3H.m3u8) (5:10)  _Published 2013-12-12. Brandon Stanton is the street photographer turned culture spotter behind the blog "Humans of New York." His photos have been called capsules of a moment in time, and are being imitated all over the world._  by [Dan Stewart](https://time.com/author/dan-stewart/)  ## Dan Stewart Updated: Dec 14, 2023 11:18 PM UTCPublished: Jul 4, 2015 5:29 PM UTC  by [Dan Stewart](https://time.com/author/dan-stewart/)  ## Dan Stewart Updated: Dec 14, 2023 11:18 PM UTCPublished: Jul 4, 2015 5:29 PM UTC Street photographer Brandon Stanton — better known as the [creator of Humans of New York](http://ideas.time.com/2013/12/16/30-under-30-meet-brandon-stanton-the-photographer-behind-humans-of-new-york/) — posted a picture Friday of a tearful boy with the caption, “I’m homosexual and I’m afraid about what my future will be and that people won’t like me.” The post garnered 498,000 ‘Likes’, about standard for a HONY post, but what Stanton may not have expected was a comment from Democratic presidential candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. [Clinton wrote](https://www.facebook.com/humansofnewyork/photos/a.102107073196735.4429.102099916530784/1010497585691008/?type=1&comment%5Fid=1010973338976766&offset=0&total%5Fcomments=44631&comment%5Ftracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R%22%7D), “Prediction from a grown-up: Your future is going to be amazing. You will surprise yourself with what you’re capable of and the incredible things you go on to do. Find the people who love and believe in you – there will be lots of them.” The photo initially became the subject of controversy when Stanton [claimed](http://roygbiv.jezebel.com/facebook-removes-humans-of-new-yorks-picture-of-gay-tee-1715644762) Facebook had removed it from the site. But a Facebook spokesperson said Saturday the photo had not been intentionally deleted, but had been temporarily unavailable due to a bug. The photo is now available to be seen online, along [with Clinton’s comment](https://www.facebook.com/humansofnewyork/photos/a.102107073196735.4429.102099916530784/1010497585691008/?type=1&comment%5Fid=1010973338976766&offset=0&total%5Fcomments=44631&comment%5Ftracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R%22%7D) signed with her distinctive “-H.” Humans of New York features photographs of ordinary people on the street along with quotes from the subjects, who typically do not identify themselves. ## Transcript >> Brandon Stanton is the street photographer turned culture spotter behind the blog " Humans of New York ." His photos have been called capsules of a moment in time, and are being imitated all over the world. He is on TIME's 30 Under 30: World Changers list. Brandon. >> Hi. >> Your blog " Humans of New York" turned into a book. One week on sale and you hit the New York Times Bestseller list. You're 29 years old. What is the first thing that you think when you're on the New York Times Bestseller list at 29? >> Even when I got the call, I wasn't expecting it at all so it's more of an outpouring of emotion than it was any kind of a, you know, structured thoughts. >> You got a really interesting path to get to where you are. In 2010, you were laid off as a Chicago bond trader. >> Right. >> And the next thing you know, you're a huge success in New York City. >> Not the next thing. >> Walk me through the line then. >> So I lost my job. I've only been photographing for a couple of months. It was just kind of a hobby. And, you know, I lost my job- and I was in finance- and I kinda had this moment of realization that in the last 3 years of my life, I had really kind of been, you know, organizing all my thought, energy and all my time around making money, and so I wanted to do something that absolutely had nothing to do with money and I knew I enjoyed photographing and so I said I'm gonna take some time off. I'm gonna travel around and I'm going to photograph. You know, I'm a very obsessive person. You know, I- it's benefited me. I don't view that as a negative thing. But, you know, every time I decided I wanna do something, I just do it and that was photography at first. And so, you know, the very early success of the blog was built on to just kind of obsession with photography and then kind of as the obsession died down, my audience was growing and then it turned into devotion. >> So you've taken more than 5, 000 portraits. >> Right. >> Who has stuck with you the most? >> This one woman- 80- year- old woman- that I ran into just south of Central Park and she had this very bright umbrella and it's pouring down rain- context is important in the story. It's pouring down rain- I don't have an umbrella- and so this very old woman comes walking towards me and I take her photograph, and I get under the umbrella with her and I said " if you could give me one piece of advice, what would it be ?" And rain is coming down and she had this raspy voice like the narrator from the Titanic, and she said " I'll tell you what my husband told me when he was dying ." He said- I said, " Mo, how am I gonna to live without you ?" and he said, " Take the love you have for me and spread it around ." Isn't that beautiful? I kinda find that, you know, any experience I'm going through in my life at this time- you know, I can look back and I can say, you know, there's somebody I talked to on the street- it was going through the same thing. So, you know, memories of these interactions are always popping up contextually. >> Do you live your life by any motto or is there anything that runs through your head walking down the street? >> So many people want to share their philosophies and share their opinions, you know, and I'm just like- I kinda rebel against that- and just like, you know, " well, I just want to work hard ." I just want to work hard and kinda let the work speak for itself. So, you know, I try not to form these overworking philosophies about what hone is about. You know, what is it contributing to the world? What's the meaning behind the work? You know, why am I doing it? I'm doing it 'cause I love it. I- other people seem to enjoy it and I want to get better at it, and if there's meaning in the work, let that come out organically. >> What advice would you give to people who find themselves laid off? >> On a broader sense, I mean it all comes down to work. You know, I spent so much time trying to give people advice and then it's just like it's gotten narrow, narrow, narrow, narrow- just like, " God, dang it. Just work ." Just work. You know, don't wait. Everybody is waiting till they have the perfect idea to start working, you know. Just even if you have kind of an inkling of what you wanna do, start moving towards it and it's gonna flesh itself out through the process of moving towards the goal. And by the time you get to where you're gonna be, it's not gonna look anything like it did when you sat on the couch thinking about it and if you wait to get till it's perfect in your head before you get off the couch and start working on it, that's never gonna happen. >> Photography the rest of your life? >> There's this feeling, you know, of having built up this audience, you know, over this time period and having them rely on you for daily content in this case photography. You know, there's- it's a very good feeling but there's this feeling of being just attached to it, you know, that if you stop, it'll dissipate so- I mean right now I can't imagine stopping photographing. Just taking these 2 million people that are looking at my work everyday and saying, " Hey, guys. Thanks. It's been fun ," you know, I just- it's not- definitely not something on the radar now. >> Thanks, Brandon. >> Yeah. 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