Humans Of New York Finally Found Out Why Hillary Clinton Seems So “Cold”

Update: Clinton continued to tell her story throughout multiple posts on the blog, sharing her thoughts on her public image. This story was originally published at 2:30 p.m. on September 8, 2016. As a former U.S. senator for New York and a current state resident, Hillary Clinton probably counts as a Human of New York, no matter where she may be living next year. The popular photography blog — which chronicles New Yorkers who founder Brandon Stanton encounters on the street — featured the presidential candidate on Thursday, as she shared a formative experience from her college years.

In the anecdote, which never mentions Clinton's name or her status as a presidential candidate, she talked of being one of a very few women in a room full of men as she got ready to take a law school admissions exam. “A group of men began to yell things like, ‘You don’t need to be here.’ And, ‘There’s plenty else you can do,’” she said. One of them even accused her of taking his spot in the class and leaving him open to being drafted and killed in the Vietnam War. “And they weren’t kidding around,” she added. “It got very personal.” Clinton used the tale to illustrate how she came by her much-criticized reserve. “I know that I can be perceived as aloof or cold or unemotional. But I had to learn as a young woman to control my emotions. And that’s a hard path to walk,” she said. She is often seen as cold or unlikeable, though her intimates and many who have worked closely with her say that’s not the case. Clinton addressed her chilly image in her acceptance speech for the Democratic nomination, saying that “the service part [of public service] has always come easier to me than the public part.” “I don’t view myself as cold or unemotional,” she said to HONY. “But if that sometimes is the perception I create, then I can’t blame people for thinking that.”