As she returns to Italy, Amanda Knox pens essay on a 'surreal' life and 'involuntary' fame

Eight years ago, Amanda Knox was released from Italian prison after being wrongfully convicted and incarcerated for the sexual assault and 2007 murder of her roommate in Perugia.

On Thursday, Knox, 31, returned to Italy to speak to the Italy Innocence Project, which is taking place through Saturday in Modena.

Knox arrived at Milan's Linate airport and was escorted by plainclothes officers as she kept her eyes downward and exited the airport.

Before embarking on the journey, Knox penned an essay that she published Wednesday on Medium. Knox is an author, journalist and a public speaker.

The essay, entitled "Your Content, My Life," focuses on a "surreal" and "involuntary" life in the spotlight and the media attention she has endured over the years. "Someone’s life may make a great story, but it’s still their life," Knox wrote.

As a journalist herself, she continued, she feels responsible to respect that.

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In the essay, she makes a call to action, citing her own experience as an example of the negative impacts of all that media attention and sensationalism.

"While on trial for a murder I didn’t commit, my prosecutor painted me as a sex-crazed femme fatale, and the media profited for years by sensationalizing an already sensational and utterly unjustified story," she wrote. "It’s on us to stop making and stop consuming such irresponsible media."

Between a Netflix documentary, the promotion billboards that came with it – that displayed Knox's face under the word "murderer" – the constant press attention and the emergence of social media during her trial, Knox has been a media spectacle.

This current media environment gives her two options, she explains in her essay: Keeping all of her social media private or to go public and allow her life to continue to be a content source for others.

As a result, she chooses to continue to share pieces of her life. Posting on social media like Instagram about her fiance, her cat, art, podcasting, her stresses and like any good 'grammer, food.

Before leaving for Italy, she channeled her nervous energy about "facing a potential audience" into the essay and her own version of an inspirational poster that she uploaded to Instagram:

Knox and her fiance left for Italy on Tuesday, according to her Instagram.

Contributing: The Associated Press. Follow Morgan Hines on Twitter: @MorganEmHines.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: As she returns to Italy, Amanda Knox pens essay on a 'surreal' life and 'involuntary' fame