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Christina DiPasquale, founder and CEO of Balestra Media who started working with Manning three years ago, described how Manning would “tweet” from prison.

“She would actually think of her tweets and dictate them over to the phone to a supporter or a volunteer, who would post them for her, and read to her some of the reactions,” DiPasquale said. “She would tell them to re-tweet someone or to look for a particular tweet or a comment.”

Manning personally posted her first photo as a woman upon her release from military prison on Instagram.

“Owning my identity ... ties into my value of dignity,” she said. “I think that every person has, you know, whether trans, you know, gay, straight, black, white, Asian, Hispanic, you know, we all have the right to define ourselves and to define who we are ... without any judgment or expectations placed on us.”

Her definition of freedom is “just being able to express myself for who I am,\" she said. \"And there's no expectations on me. There's no rules that I need to follow. I can be who I want to be and I am who I am.”

Manning has nearly 300,000 followers on Twitter and Instagram, but doesn’t really see herself as a public figure.

“I don't see it as celebrity,” she said, “It’s just what I was doing on social media as a teenager, just scaled up by several orders of magnitude.”

When asked about how she deals with hateful comments on social media, she said, “I just remember that ... sometimes people have reasons of doing that that have nothing to do with the content. It's just, like, a part of ... their needs to be heard in the world and to have a connection to people, even if it's negative.”

Manning has received financial support from donors who do not know her. Singer-songwriter Evan Greer organized an online benefit album, entitled “Hugs for Chelsea,” which was compiled by a group of prominent musicians to show their support and raise funds to cover Chelsea’s living expenses as she transitions out of prison. She said they have raised around $12,000 from the album plus $173,000 through Manning’s GoFundMe that Strangio and Greer organized.

Manning said she is grateful for their support and said, “It's incredible to have the opportunity to be able to defend myself.

“It's incredible to have the opportunity ... to not have to worry about certain logistical things,” she continued. “And all of that is based upon just the fact that people are going outta their way. And it's usually small amounts. It's not like I have these major donors or anything. ... This is just enough to get through this process.”

In an interview with ABC News, Greer emphasized the role activism played in freeing Manning: \"President Obama commuted Chelsea's sentence, but it was grassroots activism that set her free -- and likely saved her life. Hundreds of thousands of people from across the political spectrum came together to fight for Chelsea because we could see that she was fighting for all of us. In the end, a scrappy band of activists with little more than laptops, online savvy, protest signs, press releases, creativity, and hope managed to change the course of human history. We refused to allow Chelsea Manning to disappear. By raising our voices together, we raised so much public awareness and built enough political power that the President of the United States felt like he had to respond. The story of Chelsea Manning's freedom is a story of ordinary people who have done extraordinary things, and that's a story that people need to hear now more than ever.\"

Manning said she has not yet spoken to Obama, but said she would to tell him thank you.

“I’ve been given a chance. That’s all I wanted,” she said.

Her lawyer, Hollander, agreed.

“You will always hear that the military says, ‘We take care of our soldiers. We never leave a body on the ground. We never leave anyone behind. We take care of our soldiers,’” Hollander said. “The only person in the entire military who ever took care of Chelsea was her commander-in-chief, President Obama, when he commuted her sentence. That was the first time anyone ever took care of her as a service member.”

Manning, an avid reader and writer, is a “Game of Thrones” fan. However, there was one book, “Wild” by Cheryl Strayed, which she said helped her more than any other.

“I'm not a perfect person. I've made mistakes. I've learned from stuff,” Manning said. “I relate with her [Strayed], because she just lays it all out there. It's raw.”

As for what she plans for in the future, Manning said, “I'm going to figure that out.”

“I'm going to find my place. I'm going to find out what I can do, what am I good at -- what's available as an option,” she added. “I haven't even moved into my apartment yet fully ... I don't know where this road's going to lead me ... I'm at a fork in the road right now and I haven't decided which path to take.”

ABC News' Lauren Effron contributed to this report.

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