On Wednesday, Paris Hilton was in the United States Congress to testify about the treatment she received when she was institutionalized as a young woman.
Hilton can talk about extreme conditions.
He writes The Independent.
Sent by parents
The hearing at which Hilton spoke will examine and prepare the social welfare system for children and youth in the United States.
Hilton has previously said that her parents institutionalized her after she started partying when she was 16 years old.
The type of establishments Hilton inhabits are often collectively referred to as the “troubled teen industry.”
These are programs where children and young people live for a long period of time, away from parents, school and friends. Institutions are highly contested.
“These programs promised healing, growth, and support, but instead they did not allow me to speak, move freely, or even look out the window for two years,” Hilton said of the institutions where she stayed.
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This is not the first time that Hilton has called for the improvement and regulation of such institutions. She proposed a change in the law that would give young people the opportunity to contact their parents, and also regulate what residents could be exposed to.
Sexual assault
Hilton describes the nightmare-like conditions.
-I was force-fed with medications and sexually abused by staff. I was violently grabbed and dragged through the hallways, stripped naked and thrown into solitary confinement.
The way Hilton got into institutions is characteristic of the so-called “troubled teen industry.”
In the middle of the night, strangers woke her up and carried her into a car, before she was driven miles away from her luxurious home in Los Angeles.
Her parents had planned to institutionalize her behind her back.
During her stay in institutions, she was not allowed to have free contact with other people. If she was allowed to contact her parents on the rare occasion, it was with a nearby employee who would chastise Hilton if she said anything negative about the residence.
Under these circumstances, Hilton developed what we know as her “personality.” She herself says that the life of a Barbie doll has become her refuge.
“Organizer. Social media geek. General communicator. Bacon scholar. Proud pop culture trailblazer.”