--- title: Chelsea Manning on Makeup and Self-Expression description: Chelsea Manning wrote a powerful essay about how beauty helped her express herself. canonical: https://time.com/4913271/chelsea-manning-makeup-expression/ author: Samantha Cooney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-24T13:14:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:05:51.433Z og:title: Chelsea Manning Wrote a Powerful Essay on Beauty and Self-Expression og:description: 'I try to be bold' og:url: https://time.com/4913271/chelsea-manning-makeup-expression/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt34555c395f68dda6/6988dae2196cf42c08041998/chelsea-manning-makeup-bold.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: ABC News - 2017 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Chelsea Manning Wrote a Powerful Essay on Beauty and Self-Expression twitter:description: 'I try to be bold' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt34555c395f68dda6/6988dae2196cf42c08041998/chelsea-manning-makeup-bold.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Chelsea Manning Wrote a Powerful Essay on Beauty and Self-Expression > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters.  by [Samantha Cooney](https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/)  ## Samantha Cooney Aug 24, 2017 1:14 PM UTC  ABC NEWS - ABC News' "Nightline" co-anchor Juju Chang sits down with Chelsea Manning for the first exclusive television interview since Manning's prison release. The interview will air on an upcoming special edition of Nightline, "Declassified: The Chelsea Manning Story." (Photo by Heidi Gutman/ABC via Getty Images) CHELSEA MANNING ABC NEWS - ABC News' "Nightline" co-anchor Juju Chang sits down with Chelsea Manning for the first exclusive television interview since Manning's prison release. The interview will air on an upcoming special edition of Nightline, "Declassified: The Chelsea Manning Story." (Photo by Heidi Gutman/ABC via Getty Images) CHELSEA MANNING Heidi Gutman—ABC via Getty Images  by [Samantha Cooney](https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/)  ## Samantha Cooney Aug 24, 2017 1:14 PM UTC [Chelsea Manning](http://time.com/4832576/chelsea-manning-nyc-pride/) wrote a [poignant essay](https://www.yahoo.com/beauty/chelsea-manning-beauty-exclusive-expression-humanity-130034694.html) for Yahoo Beauty about how [makeup ](http://motto.time.com/4694319/urban-decay-founder-wende-zomnir-feminism/)helped her embrace her identity. The Army soldier was sentenced to 35 years in military prison in 2013 for sharing classified documents with Wikileaks. After her conviction, she came out as a transgender woman and won the right to [receive hormone treatment](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/02/12/chelsea-manning-hormone-therapy/23311813/) in prison. She was released from [prison](http://time.com/4768943/chelsea-manning-release-prison/) in May after President Barack Obama [commuted](http://time.com/4636935/president-obama-commute-chelsea-manning-prison-sentence/) her sentence. “Being closeted often put me in situations where I couldn’t concentrate or even think straight,” Manning said. “Now I try to be bold.” Manning, who recently [posed for _Vogue_‘s September issue,](http://www.vogue.com/article/chelsea-manning-vogue-interview-september-issue-2017) said that experimenting with makeup allows her to vividly express herself. When she went to protest President Donald Trump’s [transgender military ban announcement last month](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/26/us/politics/trump-transgender-military.html?mcubz=0), she chose to wear a dark lipstick. “I’m not just saying, ‘I like this edgy color.’ This is an expression of my humanity,” she said. “I’m wearing a lot of bold lipsticks, because I’m trying to make bold statements: I’m here and I’m free and I can do whatever I want.” She added that embracing her identity takes on new significance in this political climate, as some lawmakers push legislation — including the controversial [“bathroom bills”](http://time.com/3974186/transgender-bathroom-debate/) — aimed at limiting [transgender rights](https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/lgbt-legislation/?utm%5Fterm=.d0a7a1fa22a8). “I really believe in this notion that we can’t have anybody speak for us,” she said. “We need to show up and speak for ourselves now more than ever.” Read the [full essay](https://www.yahoo.com/beauty/chelsea-manning-beauty-exclusive-expression-humanity-130034694.html) on Yahoo Beauty. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4913271/chelsea-manning-makeup-expression/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4913271/chelsea-manning-makeup-expression/"},"headline":"Chelsea Manning Wrote a Powerful Essay on Beauty and Self-Expression","datePublished":"2017-08-24T13:14:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:05:51.433Z","description":"'I try to be bold'","url":"https://time.com/4913271/chelsea-manning-makeup-expression/","keywords":["motto","beauty","Chelsea Manning","identity","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt34555c395f68dda6/6988dae2196cf42c08041998/chelsea-manning-makeup-bold.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Cooney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt34555c395f68dda6/6988dae2196cf42c08041998/chelsea-manning-makeup-bold.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"ABC News - 2017","caption":"ABC News - 2017","creditText":"Heidi Gutman—ABC via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4913271/chelsea-manning-makeup-expression/","name":"Chelsea Manning Wrote a Powerful Essay on Beauty and Self-Expression"}}]}] ```