Some people are trailblazers.
Paris Hilton shared some sweet photos of her and friend Britney Spears from 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." She posted about it last November as well. She also posted on X (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 a 2017 interview with W 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."
However, according to the Library of Congress, the "first selfie" is believed to have been taken by Robert Cornelius in his front yard in 1839. "Taking a portrait is astounding in 1839," Rachel Wetzel of the Library's Conservation Division said. "Taking a self-portrait is a whole next level up from that. That portrait is incredibly significant."
Paris Hilton (left) and Britney Spears in 2008.Chris Polk/FilmMagic
The word "selfie" itself was first used in the early 2000s, according to The Oxford Dictionary, which officially added the word in 2013. And before the word was coined, a Japanese company created the first selfie stick, per Kotaku.
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 memoir The 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 2023 that she was "so proud" of Spears "for telling her story" in her memoir, adding, "I know how hard it can be doing a memoir because 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.
