Chelsea Manning, one of America’s most infamous whistle-blowers and perhaps its most famous military prisoner, is set to be released today from the Department of Defense's only maximum-security prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, after seven years in captivity for government theft and violations of the Espionage Act. It will be the first time in her life that the 29-year-old will be able to live freely as a woman since coming out publicly as transgender the day after her sentencing.

Manning’s release comes as a result of President Barack Obama's decision to commute the remainder of her 35-year sentence for disclosing hundreds of thousands of classified diplomatic and military documents, including ones about the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, to WikiLeaks. Obama’s decision surprised many, including those in his own administration, especially since during his tenure, there had been a push to prosecute whistle-blowers.

Now, Manning is readying herself for release. “I’m looking forward to breathing the warm spring air again,” she told The Guardian in an interview from this past weekend.

To help you better understand the leaks, and what Manning’s release means for Americans and Chelsea herself, we’re here to explain.

Before enlistment in the Army, Manning’s upbringing wasn’t easy.

Manning was born in 1987. She spent her childhood in Crescent, Oklahoma, and testimony at her trial painted a picture of unhappy times. Manning’s sister said that their parents were alcoholics which made her, 11 at the time, Manning's primary caregiver. Their parents’ marriage was falling apart and in the late 1990s, their mother attempted suicide, the sister's testimony revealed.

Manning spent nearly four years with her mother in Wales, returning to the U.S. after high school graduation in 2005. She got a job at a software company in Oklahoma City before a family altercation pushed her to Potomac, Maryland. Due in part to pressure from her father and, seemingly, her own aimlessness, Manning enlisted in the Army.

Thought it was risky, she came out as a trans woman in an email that later went viral.

In April 2010, Manning wrote an Army supervisor an email coming out as transgender. She wrote that she’d hoped enlisting would help her “get rid” of her “problem” with gender, and included a now-famous selfie in the email.

Master Sargeant Paul Adkins didn't pass on the message, fearing what would happen if the photo was circulated within the ranks. This was despite several memos Adkins himself had written about Manning’s mental state to therapists and psychiatrists who were treating her.

A few months before she came out as transgender, Manning downloaded troves of classified documents.

Manning’s work as an intelligence analyst exposed her to an untold story of United States military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

After making contact with WikiLeaks in 2010, Manning sent the website classified documents she had downloaded (while lip-syncing to Lady Gaga, at that). In early 2010, WikiLeaks began to release the information she had obtained.

Governments, militaries, and media all over the world reacted to the sensitive information Manning leaked.

One trove of nearly 400,000 documents known as the Iraq War Logs featured a tally of violent deaths during the conflict, and was analyzed by a group called Iraq Body Count, which came to the conclusion that as many as 15,000 civilian deaths had been previously unknown.

In more than 90,000 documents referred to as the Afghanistan War Logs, there were records of hundreds of civilians killed in unreported incidents. Other revelations included details about a U.S. military campaign that paid local Afghan media to report positive stories and a top-secret unit of NATO special forces authorized to kill targets without trial.