In 2006, The New York Post ran a now-infamous cover featuring 20-something Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan. The headline above it read: “Bimbo Summit”.

Throughout the early 00s, this treatment of “It Girls” and socialites was hardly uncommon. Hilton, Spears and Lohan were often pictured falling out of nightclubs, arguing with paparazzi and in the arms of different romantic interests, with the media continuing its unhealthy obsession into the most intimate parts of their lives.

Lohan’s struggle with addiction, Spears’ breakdown and subsequent conservatorship and Hilton’s reckless driving jail time were all tabloid fodder – and fair game. But as Hilton herself shares in a new interview with Harpers Bazaar, her treatment was far from justified.  

“The way that I was treated – myself, Britney [Spears], Lindsay [Lohan], all of us – it was a sport,” she shares. “We were just young girls discovering life, going out to a party. And we were villainised for it.”

Similarly, in her upcoming memoir Paris: The Memoir, she writes: “How do we not see that the treatment of It Girls translates to the treatment of all girls in our culture?” 

But there has been somewhat of a happy ending to the tale of harassment and abuse against young female stars.

In recent years, through documentaries like This Is Paris and Framing Britney Spears, have allowed female celebrities to reclaim some of the damaging narratives around them. Those who were once dismissed as “troubled,” “airheads” and worse are finally getting some control over how they are portrayed.

Last year, Spears’ controversial conservatorship was ended following allegations of financial misconduct against her father, including the hiring of a private security firm to keep her and people close to her under surveillance. In the same year, Amanda Bynes’ nine-year-long conservatorship was also terminated when it was deemed that her condition had improved (she had previously been placed on psychiatric hold), and protection of the court is no longer necessary.

After criticising her portrayal in drama series Pam & Tommy, Pamela Anderson recently released her own moving and emotional documentary, Pamela, A Love Story.

Lohan has, happily, made a return to film in Falling For Christmas and an upcoming Netflix project which remains under wraps.

But despite the media harassment and consequences of being in the public eye, this powerful reclamation of identity is something Hilton feels grateful for.

“I feel so proud of the woman that I’ve become, because for so long I kept all of that with me,” Hilton shared. “All the negative, horrible words that they would say to me every single day, that sticks with you. I just was not secure. Now I feel that people finally respect me and get me in ways that they never did.”

Images: Getty