- Paris Hilton said she wore a wig and went by the name Amber Taylor after escaping an abusive school.
- Hilton chronicles her time at — and escapes from — four correctional schools in "Paris: The Memoir."
Paris Hilton invented an alter ego for herself named Amber Taylor after she ran away from what she described as an abusive boarding school at the age of 16.
In her new autobiography, released Tuesday, titled "Paris: The Memoir," the now 42-year-old DJ and businesswoman unpacks the trauma she experienced as a teenager while attending a series of correctional boarding schools.
Hilton, who has in recent years become an advocate to abolish abusive residential treatment centers for teens, has previously been vocal about the abuse she said she experienced at Provo Canyon School, which is still operating but has had a change of ownership since Hilton's time there.
However, it was while she was a student at another school, before she was sent to the famous Utah-based school, that Hilton tried to live under a pseudonym in the hopes that her parents and school staff wouldn't find her and send her back.
At the time, Hilton was enrolled in The Cascade School, a therapeutic boarding school run by CEDU (which stopped operating in 2005 following multiple allegations of abuse), but escaped in the middle of the night with another student.
Hilton recalled how she initially disguised herself as a boy by thickening her eyebrows with brown mascara, drawing on a mustache, and slicking her hair back with a baseball cap.
After catching a bus in that disguise, she holed up with a friend in Bel-Air, not far from the house she grew up in. Realizing that she didn't make for a convincing boy and that someone might recognize her, Hilton said she decided to completely overhaul her look.
The mother-of-one said she hid her blonde hair under a wig and used makeup and clothing to make herself unrecognizable, and with her new look came a new identity.
"I created a character named Amber Taylor — because of Amber Valletta and Niki Taylor. Supermodel vibes," Hilton wrote. "I scrounged thrift stores for an appropriate look and bought $5 pieces on the street in downtown LA in the fashion district."
"Amber wore black, mostly. Baggy skater clothes," she continued, describing the look as "Hot Topic style."
Hilton added that when she was in costume as "Amber," she wore a "long red wig, fake nose ring, a full sleeve of press-on tattoos."
However, Hilton explained that "Amber was more than a disguise," as she was a "totally different person," and afforded the hotel heiress "a little vacation from myself."
"Amber had never been roofied or strip-searched or slapped around. She was sassy and smart, and I loved being her," she wrote, referring to the invasive examinations and abuse she said she experienced at the two CEDU schools she had attended at the time.
When Hilton — going by Amber — decided to get out of California, she headed to Connecticut where a friend of hers lived with his parents. They allowed her to stay in the guest room for two weeks during which Hilton said she caught up on sleep and watched "a lot of television," including "The X-Files," "ER," "South Park," and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."
Hilton's friend eventually called up her father, Rick Hilton who, accompanied by two "transport goons" from the school, came to take her back.
"My name is Amber. You must have me confused with someone else," Hilton recalled telling her father.
She also told her father, "No. I'm not who you think I am," and noted that "it's sad to think now how true that was."
Before Hilton was sent to Provo Canyon School, she also attended a wilderness program in the middle of the desert. At all four correctional schools, she said she experienced verbal harassment by students and staff, was forced to undertake manual labor, and said she was leered at by staff while showering or changing.
It's not known how regularly Hilton used the alias Amber Taylor after this incident, however, a 2007 article from the New York Post reported that among the items found in a storage locker that once belonged to Hilton, but was sold after she failed to pay the monthly charge, was a medical bill from a Los Angeles clinic for a miscarriage under the name Amber Taylor.
The bill was for March 2003, and the birthdate on the bill is the same as Hilton's.
Hilton recently revealed her decision to terminate a pregnancy at the age of 22.
"Paris: The Memoir" by Paris Hilton is available to buy now.