Who would you rather be, a college girl or a party girl? For then-19 year old heiress Paris Whitney Hilton, it was unquestionably party girl with- with a vengeance. Thus began the most high-profile five-years-and counting romp through the international social and party circuit possibly ever conceived. Wearing risqué-trash couture, the indefatigeable papparazzi's dream Paris and her sidekick, 15 year old sister Nicky, became famous by simply having fun, and lots of it. And since what’s hot sells- red-hot Paris was able to grab the brass ring of legitimate stardom courtesy of Fox Television, the reality show craze, and “The Simple Life”. Is Paris Hilton really the luckiest dumb, self-absorbed, blonde bimbo as she seems, or is she really an ingenious entertainment mastermind in diguise? Let's explore that idea for a second.....

Paris Whitney Hilton was born on February 17th, 1981, to Rick and former actress Kathy Richards Hilton (the couple are the current producers of the reality smash hit “The Fear Factor”, and producers of ABC's upcoming reality show "The Good Life"), making her the great-granddaughter of Conrad Hilton, founder of the Hilton hotel chain, the source of the family fortune –reportedly worth $300 million. Her grandfather, Conrad "Nicky" Hilton, Jr., also brought some notoriety to the family, as he was the first of Elizabeth Taylor's many ex-husbands. Paris' younger sister, Nicky (born in 1983), shares the throne as co-heiress of the Hilton empire, along with their two younger brothers Baron and Conrad. She grew up in an apartment in the residential wing of the famed Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Manhattan, and to this day shares a room with her sister. She has 3 Pomeranians named Dolce, Sebastian and Prince, plus the oft-photographed Chihuahua named Tinkerbell.

During her teen years, Paris briefly attended the Canterbury School, a boarding school in Connecticut, and the Buckley School in Sherman Oaks, California. She then transferred to the Dwight School in New York City before dropping out a few months later and getting a GED. Paris already knew that beauty, not brains were going to take her where she wanted to go-thus no college in her future. Paris was determined to make it on her own, "Me and Nicky are making our own names," she told the ET Insider. "I don't want to be known as the granddaughter of the Hiltons. I want to be known as Paris."