Chelsea Manning discusses what life is like behind bars

In her first interview with the press since entering a military prison, Chelsea Manning shared with Cosmopolitan what it's like to transition to life as a woman while incarcerated.

Manning, 27, became famous as Bradley Manning, the U.S. soldier who leaked hundreds of thousands of classified military documents to WikiLeaks. After being sentenced in 2013 to 35 years in prison, Manning announced she was transgender, and now has access to hormones, makeup, and female underwear, but cannot grow her hair long. "I am torn up," she said in a written interview with Abigail Pesta. "I get through each day OK, but at night, when I'm alone in my room, I finally burn out and crash."

Manning said she used to dress up in women's clothes in secret as a child, and thought that enlisting in the military would keep her from living as a woman. After being deployed to Iraq, she realized "how short and precious our lives really are," and became comfortable wearing women's clothing in public. Manning would not comment on the document leak, but did describe life in prison: She lives alone in a cell with two tall windows, and spends a lot of time in the prison library, working on a degree in political science. Manning also has a job in the woodworking shop, and said she has not faced any harassment from her fellow inmates. "There are some very smart and sophisticated people in prisons all across America — I don't think television and the media give them credit," she said. Read the entire interview at Cosmopolitan.

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