Lindsay Mills

Lindsay Mills (born February 20, 1985) is an American acrobat and blogger.[2] She came to international attention as the then-girlfriend of Edward Snowden in 2013 at the time of the global surveillance disclosures. Mills left the United States to join Snowden in exile in Moscow by October 2014.[3] They married in 2017.[1]

Lindsay Mills
Born (1985-02-20) February 20, 1985
NationalityAmerican
OccupationBlogger, Gymnast
Known forMarriage to Edward Snowden
Spouse(s)
(
m. 2017)
[1]
Websitewww.lsjourney.com

Before the global surveillance disclosures

Mills' father Jonathan Mills lives in Laurel, Maryland.[4] She studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art and would later become a dancer and acrobat.[5]

Mills and Edward Snowden lived together in Baltimore, Japan, and Hawaii.[6] They have been together at least since 2009.[6]

Mills kept a blog in which she posted pictures of herself posing and performing.[7] On 20 May 2013, Snowden left Hawaii for Hong Kong and told her that he was going on a business trip.[8]

On Thursday, June 6, 2013, agents from the National Security Agency searched Mills' home seeking Snowden.[9] On Sunday, June 9, 2013, The Guardian published a story revealing that Snowden had done the global surveillance disclosures.[9] On June 10, 2013, Mills wrote on her website, "I'll be refraining from blog posts for awhile" then deleted all posts within a day.[10] Mills was shocked to learn what Snowden had done.[11] On her personal blog, she wrote: "I feel alone, lost, overwhelmed, and desperate for a reprieve".[7]

After the global surveillance disclosures

Mills became the focus of a media sensation after the global surveillance disclosures with her identification as Snowden's girlfriend.[12] One media outlet called Mills, "the girlfriend Edward Snowden left behind".[5] In 2013 Buzzfeed reviewed Mills' personal blog.[5] It noted that she had a boyfriend whom she called "E" and her "man of mystery".[5] Mills blogged about Snowden leaving soon after he left.[13]

After Snowden left Hawaii reporters sought to question members of the Waikiki Acrobatic Troupe for insight into Mills and Snowden's relationship.[14] Newsworthy comments reported from that interview included, "I never got to know her", "I wasn't even aware she was in a relationship", and "I have no idea how much pole and other stuff she'd done".[14]

Between June 2013-14 there was no public awareness in the media of any interaction between Mills and Snowden.[15] The public did not know where Mills lived after June 2013.[16] By January 2014 Mills had not spoken to the media for seven months.[17] Mills' father shared that she was trying to make sense of what had happened and plan for her future.[17]

Later, the Citizenfour documentary included a scene which showed Snowden and Mills reunited in Moscow.[15] This reveal in October 2014 was the first indication in the media that they were still dating.[15][16] The information that Mills and Snowden were together and happy was surprising because until the documentary, popular media supporting the U.S. government had reported that Snowden's life in Russia was a miserable punishment.[3]

Mills and Glenn Greenwald joined director Laura Poitras on stage at the 87th Academy Awards to accept the Academy Award for Citizenfour.[18] In September 2016 one reporter described the Oscar showing as "Mills' most notable public appearance".[19] In Citizenfour, Mills appears for a few seconds cooking with Snowden in the Moscow apartment which they share.[16] Mills took one of the three statues awarded in ceremony.[20] Reflecting on the experience of being on stage to receive the statue for Snowden, Mills later commented, "We won a motherfucking Oscar!"[20]

In March 2015 Mills revived her blog and made two posts which a writer for Jezebel described as "mysterious".[15]

For Halloween 2015, Mills posted pictures of herself with her boyfriend in Halloween costume as Carmen Sandiego and Wally of Where's Wally?.[21][22] Both popular fictional characters are known for hiding.[21][22] In the photo Mills and Snowden are posing in front of the J. Edgar Hoover Building but presumably this is photo manipulation because they supposedly remain in Russia.[21][22]

Permanent Record, Snowden's 2019 book, features Mills' writings from her diary as part of the narrative of the surveillance disclosures.[23]

Public image

Mills has a history of being highly active in new media publishing, including social media, blogging, and video sharing.[24] Her father described her as artistic, free and open, and the opposite of Edward Snowden.[17]

A reviewer for The New Yorker described Mills' blog as "a mixture of chatty accounts of Mills’s days in Hawaii, stories of her athletic and pole-dancing feats, descriptions of fun evenings with friends, and declarations of girl power".[2] A writer for The Daily Telegraph described Mills' blog and social media presence as vivid.[17] Snowden has criticized the media's use of sexy pictures to portray Mills.[25] The character of Lindsay Mills has a prominent place in Snowden, a 2016 dramatization of Snowden's global surveillance disclosure.[26] Director Oliver Stone said that the relationship between Mills and Snowden was an important part of his movie.[27] Actor Shailene Woodley plays Mills in the film.[28] Woodley reported that she had been unable to meet Mills in person before filming, so she had been unable to imitate Mills' own mannerisms.[28] Woodley based the character on information from Mills blog and social media posts.[29]

gollark: C++ 30: Bow Down to Your Robot Overlords.
gollark: C++: Rust but Worse.
gollark: Sooo... do I just need to redefine everything with an `environment` argument or which makes FS calls internally?
gollark: It does need pretty heavy lua meddling though, for sandboxing and all that.
gollark: Good idea.

References
  1. MacAskill, Ewen (13 Sep 2019). "'They wanted me gone': Edward Snowden tells of whistleblowing, his AI fears and six years in Russia". The Guardian.
  2. Weiss, Sasha (13 June 2013), "We Are All Pole Dancing on the Internet", The New Yorker, retrieved 16 September 2016
  3. Greenwald, Glenn (10 October 2014), "Edward Snowden's Girlfriend, Lindsay Mills, Moved to Moscow to Live with Him", The Intercept, retrieved 16 September 2016
  4. Siddique, Haroon (12 June 2013), "Edward Snowden's girlfriend is 'as well as can be expected', says father", The Guardian, retrieved 16 September 2016
  5. Van Dyke, Michelle Broder; Hall, Ellie (10 June 2013), "This Is Edward Snowden's Girlfriend", BuzzFeed, retrieved 15 September 2016
  6. Lewis, Paul (11 June 2013), "Edward Snowden's girlfriend Lindsay Mills: At the moment I feel alone", The Guardian, retrieved 16 September 2016
  7. Allen, Nick; Sanchez, Raf (11 June 2013), "Edward Snowden's girlfriend Lindsay Mills 'lost and alone' after whistleblower flees to Hong Kong", The Daily Telegraph, retrieved 16 September 2016
  8. Greenwald, Glenn; MacAskill, Laura; Poitras (11 June 2013), "Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind the NSA surveillance revelations", The Guardian, retrieved 16 September 2016
  9. Greenwald, Glenn (11 May 2014), "Glenn Greenwald: Here's What Happened On The Day We Revealed Snowden's Identity", Business Insider, retrieved 16 September 2016
  10. LaGanga, Maria L. (11 June 2013), "NSA leaker's girlfriend posts about her shock, goes silent", The Baltimore Sun, retrieved 16 September 2016
  11. Leonnig, Carol D.; Tate, Julie (11 June 2013), "Snowden's girlfriend — dancer, nature lover — said to be shocked by his actions", The Washington Post, retrieved 16 September 2016
  12. Gray, Emma (12 June 2013), "Lindsay Mills, Edward Snowden's Girlfriend, Becomes An Internet Sensation: 6 Ridiculous Things That Have Been Said About Her", The Huffington Post, retrieved 16 September 2016
  13. CNN staff (June 12, 2013). "NSA leaker's girlfriend says she's 'lost at sea'". CNN.
  14. La Ganga, Maria L. (13 June 2013), "Lindsay Mills and other pole dancers missing in action", Los Angeles Times, retrieved 15 September 2016
  15. Ryan, Erin Gloria (12 March 2015), "Edward Snowden's Girlfriend Posts Two Mysterious New Blog Entries", Jezebel, retrieved 15 September 2016
  16. Birquelet, Kate (11 October 2014), "Girlfriend Snowden 'left' lives with him in Moscow", New York Post, retrieved 16 September 2016
  17. Sanchez, Raf (17 January 2014). "Edward Snowden completely abandoned girlfriend, says her father". The Daily Telegraph.
  18. Makarechi, Kia (February 22, 2015), "Yes, That Was Edward Snowden's Girlfriend at the Oscars", Vanity Fair, Condé Nast, retrieved 15 September 2016
  19. Brayson, Johnny (14 September 2016), "Where Is Lindsey Mills Now? Edward Snowden's Girlfriend Has A Busy Life", Bustle, retrieved 15 September 2016
  20. Dowd, Kathy Ehrich (6 September 2016), "5 Things to Know About Edward Snowden's Girlfriend Lindsay Mills and Their Life Together Now", People, retrieved 16 September 2016
  21. ABC NEWS (30 October 2015), "See Edward Snowden's Halloween Costume", abcnews.go.com, retrieved 16 September 2016
  22. Nguyen, Tina (November 4, 2015), "Edward Snowden's Halloween Costume Is Too Real", Vanity Fair, Condé Nast, retrieved 16 September 2016
  23. Hopkins, Nick (14 September 2019). "Permanent Record by Edward Snowden review – the whistleblower's memoir". The Guardian.
  24. Coscarelli, Joe (11 June 2013), "Edward Snowden's Girlfriend Is a Pole-Dancing Acrobat With a Dramatic Blog", New York, retrieved 16 September 2016
  25. Russian, Ale (15 September 2016), "Edward Snowden Slams Reporters – Running Sexy Photos of My Girlfriend Wasn't Fair", People, retrieved 16 September 2016
  26. Phillips, Michael (15 September 2016), "'Snowden' review: A conventional, even tame take on former NSA employee", Chicago Tribune
  27. Stone, Oliver; Open Road Films (15 September 2016), "Oliver Stone Talks Snowden's Relationship with Lindsay Mills - SNOWDEN LIVE", Open Road Films YouTube channel, Open Road Films, retrieved 16 September 2016
  28. Topel, Fred (14 September 2016), Snowden Roundtable: Shailene Woodley On The Real Lindsay Mills, retrieved 16 September 2016
  29. online editors (30 August 2016), "Shailene Woodley: 'I stalked Edward Snowden's girlfriend online'", Belfast Telegraph, retrieved 16 September 2016/
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