Paris Hilton Claims She Invented The Selfie, Insta-Fame + Most Millennial Culture
It's time to ring up the USPTO for confirmation: Paris Hilton claims in a new interview that she invented the now-ubiquitous selfie, and, well, fame in abstraction.
Hilton, who once famously snapped photos with a bedazzled T-Mobile Sidekick (she also once used a bedazzled Blackberry with a pink ‘P’ on it, a gold Razr flip phone and two more Blackberries), chronicled her early-aughts rise to fame in a chat with W. Now the owner of five iPhones that are in rotation, she says her penchant for pointing the camera at herself predates trends and fads.
“If a beeper had a camera, I would have taken a selfie with it,” she said, conceding that she's very sure she invented the movement. “I think I have a selfie from when I was a little kid, like on a disposable camera.”
Hilton also claims to have kicked off the "influencer" movement, and said anyone who can successfully monetize Instagram posts or Twitter photos basically has her to thank.
“We started a whole new genre of celebrity that no one had ever seen before,” she said. “Nowadays, I feel like it’s so easy becoming famous. Anybody with a phone can do it.”
Oh, and as for the return of aughts fashion? She's happy to have inspired that, too.
"Young people now see what people wore before and want to bring it back,” Hilton said. "To now see things on the runway, and to see girls wearing things that I used to wear is really cool because nobody really dressed like me back in the day."
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