Paris Hilton Marks 18th Anniversary of the Day She and Britney Spears 'Invented the Selfie': '#IconsOnly'

Mar. 15, 2025

Britney Spears (left) and Paris Hilton.Photo:Paris Hilton/Facebook

Paris Hilton/Facebook

Some people are trailblazers.

Paris Hiltonshared some sweet photos of her and friendBritney Spearsfrom 2006, and the reality star wanted everyone to know these were no ordinary selfies. The 43-year-old shared the three cheerful photos and wrote in the caption, “18 years ago today @BritneySpears and I invented the Selfie.” She added, “#IconsOnly.”

In the pictures, Hilton is wearing a black headband and gray tank top, while Spears, 42, is wearing a white button-down shirt. In two of the pictures, the duo smiles like normal, but in the last, the two indulge in a little duck face moment.

This is not the first time Hilton has claimed she and Spears “invented the selfie.” Sheposted about it last Novemberas well. She also posted onX(formerly Twitter), “In the 2000s, I invented the selfie. What have you done with my invention since then?!”

Hilton explained her reasons for claiming ownership of the selfie in a2017 interviewwithW Magazine. “If a beeper had a camera, I would have taken a selfie with it,” she joked in the interview. “I think I have a selfie from when I was a little kid, like on a disposable camera.”

Paris Hilton (left) and Britney Spears in 2008.Chris Polk/FilmMagic

Chris Polk/FilmMagic

The word “selfie” itself was first used in the early 2000s, according toThe Oxford Dictionary, which officially added the word in 2013. And before the word was coined, a Japanese company created the first selfie stick, perKotaku.

Nonetheless, the Hilton-Spears photos remain an early instance of the phenomenon that would ultimately take over social media feeds worldwide, thanks in part to the proliferation of front-facing camera phones. They’re also the perfect memento of the duo’s decades-long friendship.

In her 2023 memoirThe Woman in Me,Spears reflected on her friendship with Hilton, writing, “It was never as wild as the press made it out to be” and she thanked the heiress for her years of friendship.

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Hilton told PEOPLE in October 2023that she was “so proud” of Spears “for telling her story” in her memoir, adding, “I know how hard it can bedoing a memoirbecause you have to really dive in and think about so many moments in your life that I’m sure you don’t even want to think about,” she explained. “But it is truly such a healing experience, and writing my book, [Paris: The Memoir], has changed my life in so many ways,”

“I am just proud of what a strong woman she is,” she said.

source: people.com