By: Ava Folcarelli

If you have accessed the internet at all over the past two weeks or so, then you have probably seen our very own Elizabeth Holmes making a rather odd appearance. From the new documentary that has just been released, You Can See Everything (2026), to Amanda Seyfried’s The Dropout, and the last-minute Halloween costumes that portrayed her, Elizabeth Holmes has made herself quite comfortable in our present-day media. However, it is not Elizabeth Holmes herself who is necessarily pushing for the fame–she’s currently serving an eleven-year prison sentence as we speak. So the question is: who is this woman, and why are we only ‘finding out’ about her now?

Who is Elizabeth Holmes?

Elizabeth Holmes is a 42-year-old ‘businesswoman’ widely known for dropping out of Stanford’s School of Engineering to start a consumer healthcare technology company: Theranos. After a private investigation was conducted, her company was later found to be based on false accuracy claims, and Holmes was found guilty on counts of defrauding investors, wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Since 2023, Elizabeth Holmes has maintained her status as a ‘businesswoman,’ though she is more known for her company’s scandal than its success, and has since added ‘criminal’ to her long list of skills.

Outside of her education and professional career, Holmes’s behavior before imprisonment is truly what shaped her presence in the media both inside and outside of the scandal she is associated with. Holmes is known to have looked up to many financially successful male figures, with a specific ‘obsession’ with Steve Jobs. It has been said that she purposefully dressed like Steve Jobs and tailored her tone of voice to match that of a developed man’s deep voice. As displayed in the Halloween costumes, Holmes is famously known for her black turtleneck sweater look. Outside of her closet, there were also many claims made by workers at her company that Holmes would speak in a deeper voice around them and for the media, but would then revert to using her ‘natural woman voice’ when she thought one was watching. Holmes wanted to be portrayed as something successful, and perhaps the ‘Steve Jobs’ persona had her on the right track; the only bit she was missing regarded actually producing something successful and beneficial to humans, not a scam.

Interestingly, as a last-minute attempt to rebrand herself before imprisonment, Holmes made it known to the New York Times that she “speaks in a soft, slightly low, but totally unremarkable voice, no hint of the throaty contralto she used while running her defunct blood-testing start-up Theranos.” Still, this reputation she created for herself, along with the scandal, continues to follow her to this day.

Holmes is also known for the two rather odd relationships she had from the time she started her company to the time she received her sentence. Sunny Balwani, Holmes first significant partner with relevance to the scandal, was 19 years older than her and married at the time that they met. He is said to have divorced his wife within the same year of meeting Holmes and, shortly after, began engaging in a relationship with her. Balwani joined Theranos in 2009 and left in 2016, around the same time the conspiracy theories about the company began; Balwani is now serving a 13-year sentence for defrauding patients who used the blood tests. Holmes claims that her relationship with Balwani was sexually abusive and berating, which further altered her ability to make business decisions at the time. Still, despite her soft-launching of Balwani’s manipulative behavior, Holmes denied him any responsibility to her lies to business partners and investors.

Billy Evans, founder of Haemanthus, a blood testing startup, is Holmes current ‘husband.’ There is some confusion about whether or not the two are legally married; still, Evans refers to Holmes as his ‘wife.’ The two began their relationship in 2017, shortly after Holmes and Balwani’s relationship had ended. Together, they have two kids, and Evans stated in a recent interview, “It’s hard because I’m building a business and I’m trying to free my wife from prison and I’m raising two kids” (Los Angeles Times). Evans has no shame in making it known to the media that he harbors strong feelings towards his ‘wife’s’ current social standing. Also, despite the spread of conspiracy theories, Evans has made claims that his blood testing startup company has no relevance to Holmes and that she has no involvement in the company. How ironic. Nevertheless, Evans appearance in the documentary captured by Nathan Fielder, You Can See Everything, has not provided the best reputation for him. He even said himself on a podcast, “I haven’t seen it. I might think this is the dumbest thing I have ever done” (Just Jared).

What is Theranos?

Theranos was founded in 2003 by no other than Elizabeth Holmes: a turtleneck-wearing woman with some leftover tuition money that she decided wasn’t worth the “Stanford experience.” Theranos’s sole purpose was to revolutionize the art of collecting medical data; Holmes and her company claimed that with a single drop of blood, thousands of tests would be able to be run, making one’s medical diagnosis not only easier to make but to collect as well. Throughout her company’s entire lifespan, Holmes ran a very tight ship, maintaining a high level of secrecy. At the peak of the company’s life, Theranos partnered with Walgreens and had its very own wellness center established inside the drugstore. By this point, Holmes was named the richest woman in America; her company was worth $9 billion.

Despite the company’s ‘booming success,’ there were people who questioned the accuracy of the data being collected. These questions were specifically made by no other than the company’s own staff members. Enough speculation rose, and news made its way to The Wall Street Journal. An investigation was soon conducted, and Theranos was found not to be complying with federal regulations. In 2018, both Holmes and Balwani were charged with fraud for taking their investors’ money and falsely advertising their product. Theranos was no longer in operation later that same year.

You Can See Everything?

In September of this year, Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim released their three-year-long documentary on Holmes and her family: You Can See Everything. Immediately, this release sparked the public’s interest, as it was most people’s first time ever hearing about the Elizabeth Holmes scandal, myself included. Controversy immediately began as the deep dives spread like wildfire. Now, many women ask the question of whether or not Elizabeth Holmes should be recognized for her execution of power and skill in getting away with her lie for so long, or if she’s truly a selfish person and a con artist. And even if not, based on the two-minute trailer of the documentary, it is most likely that people will vote for the second option here due to her seemingly manipulative demeanor. On top of her demeanor, her confusing approach to questions throughout the documentary ultimately plays a big role in determining her portrayal of fame. Holmes asked for the documentary to be filmed, perhaps to rebrand herself before prison, though it seems as though she wanted one last taste of fame before having to hang up her turtlenecks.

Nevertheless, Elizabeth Holmes is a manipulator and has made her way to the media for a reason: not all villains are men; sometimes they are Elizabeth Holmes, itching to profit off of a drop of your blood, to expand her closet full of turtlenecks, practicing different tones in her deep voice, snaking her way to the top of a male-dominated field, just to ruin it all with the one thing you can always count on a man for: lies.

Ava Folcarelli is a senior English major with a minor in Creative Writing at Holy Family University. She is also studying to earn her Master’s in Education. Ava has a growing love for reading and a strong passion for writing. She primarily enjoys poetry writing and/ or any form of nonfiction writing.

Sources:

Brinley, Josefine. “Elizabeth Holmes and The Case of Feminism.” Medium, 22 Mar. 2022, https://medium.com/write-like-a-girl/elizabeth-holmes-and-the-case-of-feminism-a-particularly-interesting-case-study-e4ff54d4b489. Accessed 3 Nov. 2026.

Britannica Editors. “Theranos, Inc.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 1 Nov. 2026, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Theranos-Inc. Accessed 3 November 2026.

Wikipedia contributors. “Elizabeth Holmes.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 2 Nov. 2026. Web. 3 Nov. 2026.