The Democratic presidential nominee opened up to the popular blog Humans of New York. | Getty Clinton: I can't blame people for thinking I'm 'cold'

Hillary Clinton is trying to explain why some perceive her as “cold” and “unemotional," saying that the resolve she's built up over years of tough situations can be confused for something else.

Delivering a rare personal message on Thursday afternoon, the Democratic presidential nominee opened up to the popular blog Humans of New York just one day after she delivered remarks about foreign policy and military preparation at a forum on Wednesday night.


Clinton opened by recounting a jarring experience from her law school career. “I was taking a law school admissions test in a big classroom at Harvard. My friend and I were some of the only women in the room. I was feeling nervous. I was a senior in college. I wasn’t sure how well I’d do. And while we’re waiting for the exam to start, a group of men began to yell things like: ‘You don’t need to be here.’ And ‘There’s plenty else you can do.’ It turned into a real ‘pile on,’” she wrote.

“One of them even said: ‘If you take my spot, I’ll get drafted, and I’ll go to Vietnam, and I'll die.’ And they weren’t kidding around. It was intense. It got very personal. But I couldn’t respond. I couldn’t afford to get distracted because I didn’t want to mess up the test. So I just kept looking down, hoping that the proctor would walk in the room.”

Clinton, who currently holds a 54.8 percent “unfavorable” rating on the latest Real Clear Politics polling average, suggested that her coolness was a protection mechanism.

“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. Because you need to protect yourself, you need to keep steady, but at the same time you don’t want to seem ‘walled off,” she wrote.

“And sometimes I think I come across more in the ‘walled off’ arena. And if I create that perception, then I take responsibility. I don’t view myself as cold or unemotional. And neither do my friends. And neither does my family. But if that sometimes is the perception I create, then I can’t blame people for thinking that.”

Clinton’s blog post followed criticism levied by Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus that the former secretary of state didn’t smile during the NBC/MSNBC Commander-in-Chief Forum.

“@HillaryClinton was angry + defensive the entire time - no smile and uncomfortable - upset that she was caught wrongly sending our secrets,” he tweeted.

This isn’t the first time Clinton has taken to Humans of New York to share a personal message. In July 2015, she responded to a boy who posed for an emotional photo with the caption, “I’m homosexual and I’m afraid about what my future will be and that people won’t like me.”

Shortly after the creator of the blog posted the image, Clinton wrote, “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.

Hillary Clinton: Trump lives in his own 'reality TV program' Hillary Clinton talks about Donald Trump on Thursday.