Heiress in the Making
Born into the Hilton hotel dynasty in 1981 and raised between Beverly Hills, the Hamptons and a Waldorf-Astoria suite — then a teenage stint at the Provo Canyon School, the David LaChapelle Vanity Fair shoot that crowned her New York's "It Girl", and her first modeling and on-screen cameos.
Part of Paris Hilton
8 moments in this segment.
- — 1981 — Paris Whitney Hilton is born into the Hilton dynasty. Born February 17, 1981 in New York City to Richard and Kathy Hilton, a great-granddaughter of Hilton Hotels founder Conrad Hilton. She spent parts of her childhood in a suite at the Waldorf-Astoria.
- — 1997 — sent as a teenager to the Provo Canyon School. Around age 16 Hilton was sent to the Provo Canyon School, a Utah facility for troubled teens, and was released after about eleven months. She later said she suffered abuse there — the account that drives her adult advocacy.
- — 2000 — David LaChapelle's Vanity Fair shoot crowns the "It Girl". A September 2000 Vanity Fair pictorial shot by David LaChapelle (with sister Nicky) made Paris a national name; within months the press was calling her New York's leading "It Girl".
- — 2001 — a cameo in Zoolander. Hilton appeared as herself in Ben Stiller's comedy Zoolander, one of her earliest on-screen cameos as her socialite fame was taking off.
- — Paris Hilton’s 21st birthday party (2002). The lavid 2002 birthday — the It Girl arrives, with parties in five cities.
- — Paris interviews Christina Aguilera at a 2003 fashion show. Front-row fixture: Paris working the fashion-week circuit at the height of the It-Girl era.
- — Paris Hilton at the peak of the It-Girl era. A studio portrait of Paris as the early-2000s It Girl.
- — The Hilton family: from $5,000 to a $15 billion empire. The hotel dynasty Paris was born into — great-grandfather Conrad Hilton’s empire.
