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Documents released by the Clinton Presidential Library reveal Hillary Clinton's PR struggles as first lady, her "aversion" to the Washington press corps and her transition into a presidential candidate.

Hillary Rodham Clinton's advisers sought to "humanize" what they saw as her stern, defensive public image during her husband's White House days and as she embarked on her groundbreaking Senate campaign in New York.

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"Be real," wrote adviser Mandy Grunwald in a July 1999 memo as Clinton prepared for a Senate campaign. In the memo, the adviser urged the first lady to "look for opportunities for humor. It's important that people see more sides of you, and they often see you only in very stern situations."

Thousands of pages of documents released Friday by the Clinton Presidential Library reveal the first lady's struggles with the health care plan during the 1990s, "an aversion" to the Washington press corps and her transition into a political candidate in her own right as the Clinton administration ended.

Clinton is the leading Democratic contender to succeed President Barack Obama, though she has not said whether she will run. The nearly 4,000 pages of records, the first of more than 25,000 expected to be released in the next two weeks, underscore her attempts to appeal to average Americans and her aides' advice that she show a more human side, reminiscent of problems that surfaced in her 2008 primary loss against Obama.

Clinton's public image has been a hotly debated topic throughout her career and could linger into any presidential campaign in 2016. She generated headlines during her husband's 1992 campaign when she defended her work as an attorney instead of being someone who "could have stayed home and baked cookies." Her role in the health care reform effort was criticized as Democrats were routed in the 1994 elections. Establishing herself in the Senate, Clinton lost to Obama in the 2008 Democratic primary but has become one of the most admired women in the world, watching her popularity grow as Obama's secretary of state.

The documents provide more details about the concerns in her own camp about how she was perceived by the public.

As the first lady began her bid for the Senate seat, Grunwald coached her to keep her tone conversational and "don't be defensive" when handling "annoying questions" from the media. Grunwald said Clinton was sure to be asked about her husband's Senate impeachment trial earlier that year and encouraged her to acknowledge "that of course last year was rough."

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Hillary Clinton: What 4,000 pages of Clinton library docs say about her