Paris by Paris Hilton

I listened to this on Audiobook. It was read by Paris Hilton. People's personas on social media can be very different than the person behind the persona. I didn't have any particular interest in Paris Hilton before reading this, but her experiences pretty much shocked me. Paris doesn't present herself in this book any other way than what she is. She is privileged from a wealthy family. She is also a hard worker, which appears to be the case for every generation of her family. She is open and unapologetic about the challenge she was to her parents as a young teenager, who were very strict. She rebelled against that strictness in a very public way. That's the Paris Hilton I know from her antics being presented in the media. I also remember her from her show with Nicole Richie, which I never really watched, figuring it was silly.

So here is what I didn't know - and what the family didn't want anyone to know: Paris' parents sent her away for two years to Provo Canyon School in Utah, which was a "school" for troubled teens. Her parents told everyone else that she was in London. As an adult, Paris has fought to shut down Provo and other "schools" like Provo because of the intense abuse suffered by the children who have been forced to attend them. To be fair to Paris' parents, Provo was presented as something entirely different than how it was actually run. Paris begged her parents to take her out of Provo and made several attempts to escape it. She was always caught and forced to return - sometimes being turned in by her family. They simply didn't know what was going on. Paris tried to tell them, but having a "wild child" complaining about a school setting isn't likely to be believed by anyone. It's like the little boy who cried wolf once too often. Paris also grew up with undiagnosed ADHD, so that didn't help her behaviors.

With that being said, Paris was tormented and abused at Provo, along with everyone else who was there. They were taught to degrade and humiliate each other - oftentimes for several hours at a time. Trust was non-existent. There were times that Paris trusted other "students" who turned her in. There were other times that other "students" tricked her into thinking they wanted to escape too, but these were often attempts to turn the focus from themselves onto Paris, who would then be punished for it. Interestingly, Paris doesn't necessarily blame her parents for sending her to Provo since she accepts that they didn't honestly know what happened there. They believed they were doing the right thing, since she was out-of-control and they didn't want to "lose" her. She seems to definitely suffer from PTSD however, and I'm not sure her relationship with her mother will ever be 100% healthy. Her mother really doesn't seem to be comfortable talking about hard things in life. She's a "sweep it under the rug" and hope it goes away kind of person. According to her, their family needs to behave a certain way and be presented a certain way and anything less than that is unacceptable.

This memoir is well written and really demonstrates Paris' determination, intelligence, and limitless strength to push through, no matter what.

Wendy's Rating: ****