On December 1, 2003 – the day before her reality show The Simple Life premiered on US television – Paris Hilton was taken aside by her mother, Kathy.

“She said to me: ‘Tomorrow, when this airs on television, your life is going to change forever’,” Hilton recalls. “I want you to remember to remain the same down-to-earth person you are, never let this go to your head and never change.

“And that’s something I have held in my heart ever since. I’ve seen a lot of people come and go, and I have seen a lot of people let it go to their head. I have never been one of those people, I have always remained the same person.”

The 41-year-old influencer, a great-granddaughter of Hilton Hotels founder Conrad Hilton, spoke to The Sun-Herald and The Sunday Age on the set of a new ad campaign for Uber Eats which, like many brands, sees value in leveraging her audience: 18.7 million on Instagram, 16.9 million on Twitter and 6 million on TikTok.

When Hilton moved into social media in 2009, the industry was in its infancy. Last year, she consolidated her business into a single production company, 11:11 Media, which produces audio, television and digital content, product licensing and branding, music and art, including digital non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

It is, she says, what a multi-platform A-game looks like in 2022. “That’s why I built it,” Hilton says. “It’s important to be on all these platforms and to take it seriously. I love making content, and you have to get the most out of every single thing you do.

“I always prided myself on being innovative and being the first at doing things. I love that something I did before there was even a name for it is now an occupation – a form of celebrity that any kid in their living room with a talent or a passion and an iPhone can put on social media.

“There’s good and bad that comes with that because I think there is a lot of pressure, too, particularly for girls,” Hilton says. “But if you use social media in a good way, in positive ways, and you do something positive with your brand, then it’s a good thing.”

Hilton says she prefers to work with brands she uses in her life: “When I got the call about this [she gestures to the set for the Uber Eats commercial she is filming], I was like, ‘yes, I use this’. And to be working with the Irwin family [Robert and Bindi Irwin also appear in the ad], I felt really aligned with my own brand.”

In her podcast, I Am Paris, she tackles subjects she thinks do not have enough mainstream media attention. In her conversation with actor Amy Schumer, for example, the pair talked about the autism spectrum, therapy and cancel culture.

“What I love about the podcast is having my voice,” Hilton says. “I feel like growing up in the early 2000s, the media treated me – and Britney Spears and a lot of those girls – really unfairly. I feel like [with the podcast], I can tell the truth and speak about what I want to speak about. It’s powerful to have that voice.”

Hilton has also taken on a very personal cause: the abuse of students in America’s private “behavioural” education system. Hilton was a victim of such abuse herself, she says, revealing in the 2020 documentary, This Is Paris, she had been subjected to strip searches, force-fed medication, watched in the shower and confined in isolation as punishment.

Hilton’s production company produces a podcast series, Trapped in Treatment, hosted by abuse survivor Caroline Cole and investigator Rebecca Mellinger. And now, Hilton, having successfully campaigned in several US states for new laws protecting teenagers in private schools with behavioural and mental health issues, is taking her crusade to Washington, DC.

“Everything happens for a reason, and maybe I had to go through that, and maybe I was given this gift so that I could use my voice and make a difference, to stop it from happening to other children,” Hilton says. “In a way, this is my mission in life now. And it’s the thing that has the most meaning because I am making an impact.

“My whole life, it’s been a lot of fun and I’ve done a lot of stuff: The Simple Life, all that, and playing a character,” she says. “But that was just the fun part. This is something that’s really serious and making a difference in saving lives. That means everything to me.”

Hilton believes the public persona of Paris Hilton – the selfie-obsessed airhead – is one she created as a “coping mechanism” for the abuse she went through as a teenager at Provo Canyon School.

“It was just such a traumatic and horrible experience that I just didn’t ever want to think about it again,” she says.

“I think I invented this bubbly Barbie-type, perfect life fairytale, so I didn’t have to think about what had happened. And then it ended up being this whole brand, and then it became ‘me’, but it was never really me.

“I am actually a pretty shy person,” she says. “[This other persona] is a mask I wear … I’m just playing someone else. The real me is a lot more serious. I’m not a dumb blonde. I’m just very good at pretending to be one.”

Source: smh.com.au

(CNN) A fuschia Bentley drives down a twisty desert road toward the entrance of the Neon Carnival, an after-party held each year during Coachella. Paris Hilton has arrived. Her hair is in pigtails, twisted in part with white flowers, and she’s wearing a sparkly pink romper that matches her platform boots. She greets fans on a red carpet, heads to a packed dance floor and eventually finds her way to the go-karts.

Hilton attends the invite-only party in person each year, but this particular scene played out last month in Paris World, Hilton’s virtual experience on popular gaming platform Roblox, where she joined as an avatar. Nearly 400,000 Roblox users visited her virtual Neon Carnival that mid-April weekend, about 40 times the number of people who went in real life this year, according to Hilton. (The digital event was sponsored by Levi’s and designed in part by Brent Bolthouse, the founder of the original Neon Carnival).

It’s a concept Hilton has seen success with before. On New Year’s Eve, she DJed a live set in the same virtual world, playing as her avatar. In Paris World, users can also buy virtual clothing, book a jet ski ride or pay to gain access to a VIP section of a club.

“I’ve always been an undercover nerd, so I’ve been obsessed with anything to do with technology and the future,” Hilton told CNN Business in an interview last month. “Now my new nickname is ‘The Queen of the Metaverse,'” she added, referring to a sobriquet she has used on the red carpet and in a number of her social media posts, which, according to her company 11:11 Media, first emerged in the NFT space on Twitter.
Hilton has long been a trendsetter. She arguably became an influencer before the term even existed after her reality TV show, “The Simple Life,” debuted in 2003. But Hilton, the great-granddaugther of hotel mogul Conrad Hilton, has also been working to redefine her public image as a successful businesswoman and to cement her status as an innovator.
Recently, she’s embraced two buzzy but speculative trends in tech: the metaverse, a vision for an immersive virtual world that still does not exist; and non-fungible tokens, known as NFTs, which refer to pieces of digital content linked to the blockchain, the digital ledger system underpinning various cryptocurrencies.

Hilton has invested in multiple tech companies, including backing digital avatar startup Genies and animation app immi, which allows some NFT owners to bring the characters in their digital artwork to life. She also bought a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT, a pricey and highly sought after collection that’s attracted celebrity buyers. Hilton has also created her own NFT artwork. One of her latest NFT pieces, called the “Iconic Crypto Queen” and created in collaboration with popular NFT artist Blake Kathryn, sold for $1.111 million — a nod to 11:11 Media, Hilton’s new company named after her favorite time of day.

While the future of both the metaverse and NFTs remains unclear, arguably all the more so for the latter after a crypto market crash this month, some say there is real potential for celebrities who embrace virtual gatherings and products. “For celebrities, like brands, this is another way for them to engage with their fans and audiences,” said Michael Inouye, a principal analyst at ABI Research. “This could be through virtual events, concerts, shows and more. They could sell virtual merchandise so fans could show their fandom both in their real and virtual lives.”
Her bet on these digital products and services is just one piece of Hilton’s growing empire. Last fall, Hilton brought all of her initiatives under 11:11 Media. The company includes her 19 product lines, such as fragrances, clothing and makeup, which have surpassed over $4 billion in all-time revenue, according to the company. It also includes her production company Slivington Manor Entertainment — which is behind TV projects including “Cooking with Paris” and “Paris Hilton in Love” — and her podcast company London Audio.
“We are growing quickly and want to find the talent of people who are interested in this space,” said Hilton. To that end, Hilton is partnering with ZipRecruiter, an online platform for job seekers, to add more employees to her roster. 11:11 Media is soon launching a sweepstakes for someone to win a mentorship program with her in Los Angeles to learn many of the aspects of running her business.
“Mentorship is also something that’s really important for me. My mentor was my grandfather,” she said of the late Barron Hilton, the business magnate who was the former president, chairman and CEO of Hilton Hotels Corporation. “It’s just all the advice he gave me and the support has really stuck with me throughout my career. I want to be able to do that for someone else.”

Full article: cnn.com