Discover the Person Behind the Name in Paris Hilton’s ‘Paris: The Memoir’
If you're a celebrity memoir enthusiast, there's a new book to add to your reading list.
Paris Hilton is one of the most prominent and iconic figures of the early 2000s. She made headlines for her luxurious lifestyle, loud fashions, and famous taglines. However, all that glitters isn't gold, and in her new book Paris: The Memoir, she takes readers behind the scenes and into the traumatic events she's endured before becoming a household name.
Her Younger Years Weren’t Without Traumatic Challenges
Despite spending her childhood in some of the most affluent parts of the country, Hilton’s upbringing was not without its share of challenges. After a rebellious streak in high school, she was sent off to attend Provo Canyon School in Springville, Utah at the age of 17.
Paris: The Memoir
Buy from Amazon, $20.08 (for Hardcover)
Hilton writes of her arrival at Provo Canyon School in 1997, and how she was forced to submit to a pelvic exam before being labeled as number: ‘127.’ The staff referred to her by this number instead of her name during her stay.
Throughout the hellish 11 months that she resided there, the facility forced her to sit nude inside of a cinder block observation room, performed late night gynecological exams for no medical reason at all, and threatened those who resisted with injected sedation. Hilton recalls, “there was always a tray with syringes” when referring to the exam room.
Her Life Was Anything But Simple
While trapped in faded sweatpants at Provo, Hilton daydreamed of a designer wardrobe, spray tans, glitter, and wearing glamorous false lashes. “Instead of shame, I would wrap myself in audacity, and I would make so much money and be so successful, no one could ever have control over me again,” she writes.
Although Hilton managed to manifest her dream, it didn't come without struggle.
After her hit reality show The Simple Life premiered in December 2003, Hilton was more famous than ever before with people around the globe saying, “that’s hot” in her signature soft voice. But, just a few short months later, her world would come crashing down when a clip of an adult tape with ex-boyfriend Rick Salomon began circulating online.
Hilton begged Salomon to not distribute the full version, but he responded by saying he “had every right to sell something that belonged to him — something that had a lot of financial value.”
Hilton reveals she would cope with everything going on in her life by drinking alcohol and staying busy to the point that she didn’t ever really have time to stop and process what had happened in her past and what was happening to her in the present moment.
With no social media back then and no way to put out statements in her own words, it was easy for the press to label Hilton as a bratty, spoiled rich girl, who seemingly imploded and ended up in jail.
In her book, Hilton also shares that she was raped at the age of 15, as well as survived other traumatic sexual experiences.
How She’s Helping Women and Girls Today
Today, Hilton has openly acknowledged a lot of her actions and antics from her teen years and early twenties were largely some form of trauma response, since she never really took time to properly deal with what she had been through.
By putting herself out there and being more vulnerable than she ever has before in her new memoir, she hopes to spearhead a movement and spark a larger conversation about the so-called “troubled teen” industry, how it actually does a lot more harm than good, and the ways it negatively affects these children when they grow into adults.
As she proudly states, “The people who hurt you don’t get the last word. You get to tell the story of you, and your story has more power than you can imagine.”
Behind the glitz and glamor, Paris Hilton has faced many challenges and traumatic experiences. Although she has been open about these experiences before, nothing really compares to the vulnerability displayed in Paris: The Memoir, available now on Amazon.
Paris: The Memoir
Why we like it:
Eye-opening and unfiltered
Insights on Hollywood elites
Empowering
Also available on Audible, narrated by Hilton