It was a somber, and at times tearful, gathering today as legislators and advocates promoted a bill to hold behavioral treatment centers for teens more accountable.

Most of the attention was focused on one (some might say, unexpected) speaker: The hotel heiress, socialite and media personality Paris Hilton.

Hilton is the latest celebrity to utilize their fame (or as she said “shine my spotlight”) to persuade the Legislature to change state policy. In Hilton’s case, the physical and emotional abuse she says she experienced at youth treatment centers in California, Utah and Montana has led her on a personal crusade against institutional abuse in the “troubled teen industry.”

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