In this episode of Minds at Work, Nathan talks with Rebecca Grone from 11:11 Media about Paris Hilton’s journey as a neurodiversity advocate and their collaborations with Understood.org, including joint campaigns for ADHD Awareness Month. Rebecca shares how 11:11 Media weaves impact into every project — including Paris & Pups and Inclusive by Design — and how brands can build mutually beneficial partnerships that drive real change. She leaves us with an important reminder that it’s easy to advocate for what you authentically care about.
In this episode of Minds at Work, Nathan talks with Rebecca Grone from 11:11 Media about Paris Hilton’s journey as a neurodiversity advocate and their collaborations with Understood.org, including joint campaigns for ADHD Awareness Month.
Rebecca shares how 11:11 Media weaves impact into every project — including Paris & Pups and Inclusive by Design — and how brands can build mutually beneficial partnerships that drive real change.
She leaves us with an important reminder that it’s easy to advocate for what you authentically care about.
Timestamps:
(01:33) How Paris Hilton became a neurodiversity advocate
(06:50) Going all in on impact and ADHD awareness with 11:11 Media
(09:48) Introducing Inclusive by Design, an original series on creating neurodivergent-friendly spaces
(17:02) What it means to be the “head of impact”
(19:00) Building a partnership between Understood.org and 11:11 Media
(24:13) Navigating personal and professional relationships when neurodivergence is part of the mix
For a transcript and more resources, visit Minds at Work on Understood.org. You can also email us at podcast@understood.org.
Nathan Friedman: Welcome to "Minds at Work", the podcast for leaders who embrace neurodiversity in business. I'm your host, Nathan Friedman, co-president and chief marketing officer of Understood.org, the leading nonprofit focused on helping those who learn and think differently thrive. Each week we're here exploring how neurodiversity sparks innovation and how we as leaders across industries can create a more inclusive future for all.
Today I'm so excited to be speaking in person with Rebecca Grone. Rebecca is the head of impact at 11:11 Media, the global entertainment and media company co-founded by Paris Hilton. She plays a pivotal role in driving 11:11 Media's mission to create content and experiences that inspire, empower, and spark meaningful change. Paris has ADHD, and over the past two years, Understood has been honored to work with her on 11:11 Media to raise awareness of the challenges and also the superpowers that come with an ADHD diagnosis. I've had the pleasure of working with Rebecca through our partnership, and I'm delighted to be talking with her again here in New York City.
Rebecca, welcome to "Minds at Work".
Rebecca Grone: Thanks for having me, Nathan. I'm so excited for this conversation.
Nathan: It's great to see you here in New York. I know normally you're based in LA. I know many of us grew up watching Paris in the 2000s when she was known as a socialite, a reality star, the OG influencer, as many like to call her. But today she's a global media personality. She's also an entrepreneur, a singer, a DJ, and a social impact advocate. Tell us a bit more about her impact work and what led her to lean into neurodiversity advocacy in particular.
(01:33) How Paris Hilton became a neurodiversity advocate
Rebecca: I feel beyond proud and so lucky to get to support Paris's philanthropic and advocacy goals. Obviously, she is so iconic for so many different reasons and has been a part of culture for the last many decades. But her advocacy work is really resonating with audiences really broadly. I joined her team back in 2020 when her documentary came out where she shared her experience in the troubled teen industry for the first time.
Nathan: It was a powerful documentary. I saw it right when it came out, it was extremely powerful.
Rebecca: It really was. It was the first foray into really understanding who she was and reclaiming her voice and her experience in her own light.
With that, she really dived into her experience in the troubled teen industry. She experienced some horrific institutional child abuse as a teenager. Paris felt really passionate about the fact that there were kids still experiencing this abuse today and that she really wanted to use her platform and resources to support ensuring that no child was abused in these settings anymore. As we dove deeper into that advocacy, we realized that the actual root of the problem, the reason why youth were sent into the troubled teen industry to begin with, was because one, they weren't getting access to the resources and support they needed at home, and two, they felt really misunderstood.
A lot of that came down to the fact that so many of the survivors that we work with are neurodivergent, including Paris. As we really figured out, okay, how do we prevent this to begin with? How do we get youth access to the right resources? We realized a few things. We realized that one, so many girls and young women aren't diagnosed with ADHD or other learning and thinking differences until they're older in life. We recognized that 50% of Gen Z is identifying right now as being neurodivergent, that so much of the research is done on kind of boys' symptoms, etcetera.
Paris really took it upon herself to say, hey, this is an area that's impacting so many millions of people. Women and girls in particular are underserved in this area. Similar to the work that she's doing with the troubled teen industry and how she's really becoming kind of the face of that movement in a way, she's really taking it upon herself to include it in the conversation no matter where she is and bring it into pop culture. She wanted to do the same with neurodiversity.
Nathan: It's what I find really fascinating about Paris's three pillars, right? There's obviously troubled teen, ADHD and neurodiversity, and the third one is LGBTQ+ . The three pillars are directly linked to lived experience. That lived experience is so important when you can authentically tell a story. But more importantly, she hits on a very interesting thread that we don't often talk about, which is the intersectionality of a lot of these either diagnoses, situations, or what not. Is there any talk at 11:11 Media around this intersectionality and how there is so much opportunity for people to see themselves in Paris's work?
Rebecca: 100%. I'm so glad that you said that because initially I did, you know, supporting her work and leading the advocacy, look at it from the lens of, okay, let's address the troubled teen industry. Let's address neurodiversity and whatever else causes that we're currently engaging in. They are so interconnected.
I mean, even take ADHD and the comorbidities with mental health, etcetera. Like, we can't look at these issues in a silo. There's many reasons someone's experiencing something or someone feels misunderstood. And so how can we broaden that conversation? I think we still have work to do in doing that. But the self-awareness that they are really interconnected and that, you know, underserved communities are — we have to look out and really see the why and think really deeply about it.
Nathan: You mentioned about the higher correlation of people who are in troubled teen homes or schools or what not and learning and thinking differences. We also see the same thing in prisons, right? A higher correlation of prisoners have dyslexia or ADHD at such a high rate, you have to think, what if? What if people identified and supported children or young adults through the help they needed? Oftentimes, particularly in previous generations, awareness was nowhere, right? It was somebody else's issue. Kids aren't trying hard enough. You need to conform.
Rebecca: Paris really wants to reframe punishment to be one of understanding and patience. I think it relates directly to that. And I know this is more workplace and we'll talk, you know, higher level, but all of us have experience in that traditional school environment. So much of how we live in the world is based on what we learned back then. And so, yeah, if we're thinking about neurodiversity as the other, and that the kids that are — and I'm going to use these kind of stereotypical terms right now — like if someone that's bouncing off the walls needs extra support, but we put them in the other room to get that, we're we're creating that distance versus being more neuro-inclusive. And so we're trying to really help and reframe what that means.
(06:50) Going all in on impact and ADHD awareness with 11:11 Media
Nathan: We're fresh off our second season of ADHD Awareness Month and working together on that. This year, 11:11 Media actually rolled out a couple projects, right? Um, two on ADHD in particular. Paris's new animated kids show, "Paris & Pups", and "Inclusive by Design". It's a web series about Paris designing a new home and office to make it more ADHD-friendly and accessible. Talk to me a bit about what led Paris and 11:11 Media to want to go all in on raising awareness on ADHD and and centering around these two specific projects.
Rebecca: We've been doing this work prior to this ADHD awareness month. But in general, I would say impact is really embedded into absolutely everything we do. So we're always trying to find those creative ways where we can spotlight the causes that Paris cares about most. That looks like a bunch of different ways. Paris is organically integrating her advocacy into her public life. She's talking about it everywhere she goes. When she does brand partnerships, she's weaving in impact. I think that just comes down to it's easy to talk about the things that you care about and that you're passionate about. And so her advocacy and her impact work is always coming up.
On social media, we highlight this cause heavily during ADHD awareness month, but also all year round. Paris is really into the ADHD memes that you see online. We don't want to minimize the experience. We've had a lot of very intentional conversations around that, but we also believe that humor can be a huge driver of understanding and relatability. So how can we bring that and pair it with the education that we're doing?
But kind of beyond social media and beyond Paris's everyday life, we're really passionate about using storytelling and music to drive additional understanding. Last year, we came out with a song called "ADHD". It was a really vulnerable look at it. It was just really beautiful how audiences were responding to it and how they were playing it and it was kind of becoming this anthem for ADHD in a sense.
Kind of beyond that, we're looking at, you know, Paris was a part of "Disrupters" film, which really reframed ADHD too and brought the conversation more mainstream. Another good example is her memoir. She wrote it from the perspective of somebody who has ADHD. So you actually get to read and experience how her thoughts are kind of all over the place in a sense, but how they're always coming back to that meaning in the end.
This year, obviously we worked with you all on "Paris & Pups" and "Inclusive by Design", which are two very connected projects because they both touch on ADHD, but are for very different audiences. We're always looking like, how do we translate our message and what we're trying to achieve through all the different avenues that we have available to us?
Nathan: Before we get to "Inclusive by Design", I think it would help the listeners just to take a listen to a little bit of what we're going to be talking about in a second.
Rebecca: Love it.
(09:48) Introducing Inclusive by Design, an original series on creating neurodivergent-friendly spaces
[Audio clip from "Inclusive by Design" trailer plays]
Nathan: So that was a hot trailer, right?
Rebecca: Loves it.
Nathan: Tell us a bit more, good try, only Paris could do it that well. I'm not great with that, but I will practice for the next time I see you. Tell us a bit more about "Inclusive by Design". We just listened to the trailer. Talk us through some of the key insights and what she shares there.
Rebecca: "Inclusive by Design" really came out of just a super creative conversation that Paris was having with a few of us. It started from a pain point that she was having, which was, I'm moving into a new house, and there are so many different ways my previous home didn't work well for my brain. I really want to change that. What are strategies and how can we tap on Understood.org to really help me better understand how my brain works and then how can I translate that into something that works for me and my family, something that works for the 11:11 HQ, which is our office, which is actually the pool house of her house, which is amazing because we're right next door and we can tap her for whatever we need.
But then Paris is really always thinking about the audience and always thinking about how she can turn her lived experience into storytelling, which can then drive that meaningful change. And so she said, "Hey, why don't we just chronicle my journey of moving? Because this can't just be a me problem."
It's definitely not. We realized that, obviously, in the unveiling of this project — I mean, millions and millions of people are flocking to this show to watch how Paris is doing this, to better understand from the experts that you all provided us, what are strategies that people can take into their own lives. I think regardless of the resources that you have, these are tips and tricks that absolutely everybody — in the show we call them "sliving" tips — that everybody can approach and can bring into their home or work life.
Nathan: These are all tips that, again, as you mentioned, don't require the world to change in order for you to do that, right? Post-it notes. Yep. You know, little things that make a huge difference. That's what a lot of people don't realize. Like, it's the little things that can take a lot of cognitive load or make your life a lot easier. Do you have a couple that are your favorite?
Rebecca: I think the ones that really stuck out to me, I think it was Sarah--
Nathan: And just for the listeners, Sarah is Sarah Greenberg, who's not only a licensed therapist, but she's also Understood's head of expertise and our expert network.
Rebecca: She said, "If you can't see it, it doesn't exist." I just don't think that that's just for neurodivergent individuals, right? That's just for everybody. We really embraced clear bins and very strategic and crazy labeling all over the house. But it really helps. It helps streamline things, it helps keep things organized. I think for Paris, what she realized was that it's just that extra thought that can go away to provide clarity for the other things in her life that are more important. We did that in the closet, and the craft room, etcetera.
Another one that I think is really fun was color coding.
Nathan: Yes. How many shades of pink do you now have?
Rebecca: Oh my gosh, yes. I didn't know there's so many shades of pink. But not only obviously helps visually just see what you have and also helps with memory, but I think what was fun about it was that Paris just genuinely enjoyed color coding her closet. There are still so many things that just if it makes you happy, it also is going to be a process that's going to stick more.
In the office, we had a lot of fun. I think audiences are actually really relating to what we did in the "Sliving Sanctuary", which for those that don't know, I really encourage you to watch the show and particularly this episode, which is episode three of "Inclusive by Design". We created a small breakout room, I would call it, that we're calling the "Sliving Sanctuary". Understood.org helped us with kind of expertise and research-backed insights into ways that this smaller space within the broader office could support our neurodivergent team members.
That looked like everything from making sure that there's really great natural lighting and dimmable lights, to greenery in the space, to flexible seating options. We have a long bench that people can, you know, lie on if they need a break or or numerous people can sit. And then we also have this really cool ADHD chair.
Nathan: That video was amazing.
Rebecca: It is the best, but it actually intuitively makes so much sense. It's this chair that can essentially be swung into like 10 different positions. So you can sit in it normally or more traditionally, as one would say. You can cross your legs, which is kind of my preferred seating style when I'm doing deep work. You can put your knees up, you can sit with your stomach to the back. It's really, really cool. I think it just underscores the fact that everybody finds comfort in different ways. And how can we make sure that if we're trying to get the efficiency, the expertise, the creativity out of everybody, we need to provide those options so that they can get there.
Nathan: You designed for the most marginalized, it helps everybody thrive.
Rebecca: And I think the most interesting thing is that we built this for, and I'm going to put in quotes, kind of the few folks on our team who are neurodivergent, and we really use their insights into what they were looking for and what they wanted. But what I've noticed is since we opened it, every single one of our team members is flocking to that space. It just underscores like these are really easy ways that offices or schools or community centers can bring kind of an additional light and creativity to their space, and that I think the investment is going to show up in numerous ways.
(17:02) What it means to be the “head of impact”
Nathan: It's exciting. Can you talk about your role and what it means to be the head of impact and what does your day-to-day look like?
Rebecca: My day-to-day is different every single day. I serve as the head of impact at 11:11 Media, which is our for-profit media company, and we sit in Hollywood at the center of entertainment and commerce and culture. But I have the opportunity to run our 501(c)(3) nonprofit and our 501(c)(4) where we pursue all of our policy goals. It's structurally designed that way where I get to focus on all of Paris's personal goals and her advocacy for the causes that she cares about. But then I also get to oversee all the projects at the media company and make sure that impact's woven into everything that we do.
Nathan: Sounds like a dream job.
Rebecca: It is. I love my job so much. I will be with Paris for as long as she'll have me. I mean, she's just like, truly the most kind. She really lets us lead and guide her. Her creativity and the ideas that she comes up with are so inspiring. I've just learned so much from her over the last five years.
Nathan: That's a superpower.
Rebecca: Yeah. Creativity.
Nathan: Connecting dots.
Rebecca: It is her superpower. I mean, she is such a great leader. I think one of the most fun parts about this issue area, neurodiversity, ADHD, is how she is really, really passionate about showing how many kind of entrepreneurs and creatives there are out in the world that are neurodiverse. How can we honor that and and bring more empowerment to that and and have folks really embrace it publicly?
Essentially at the core, I'm kind of the connector between all the storytelling that we do and the issue areas and how do we bring these causes in the most strategic way to the forefront to make that change?
(19:00) Building a partnership between Understood.org and 11:11 Media
Nathan: Part of that is the partnership with Understood. What did Understood, what did the organization I represent, bring to the table? Did it solve something? Did it enlighten in another area? Or how did it manifest in a way that benefits not only 11:11 Media, ADHD awareness, and what Paris believes in?
Rebecca: When we created the impact vertical at the company, kind of our main mandate was that we work with and alongside people with lived experience. We don't want to be speaking about neurodiversity, as an example. We want those who know it best to be the ones that are really supporting the work alongside us.
When Paris wanted to engage, you know, more heavily in ADHD as a topic, you guys just came to mind immediately, seeing the incredible work that you're doing as an organization that could be a true collaborator. I think this is kind of a unique collaboration and partnership that we have. You guys are embedded in everything that we do. From trainings with our internal team — how can we better support the neurodiverse individuals on our team and what do we need to learn and how do we need to grow? You guys advise on all of our projects and we figure out together how we can weave in these narratives that are important to both of us.
We're continuously speaking about Understood.org and bringing your guys's resources to the forefront on our social channels. I think it's just a very beneficial and mutually beneficial partnership that we have. I mean, you guys bring the expertise, the data, the research, and the audience that follows you. And we bring kind of that cultural resonance, the visibility, and the storytelling.
Nathan: It helps both sides, right? And I think we've actually spoken on a panel about this about how do you create mutually beneficial partnerships that are strategic, right? Not everybody can do everything, right? We're very good at what we do, being expert-backed. I think it's been tremendous — not only to see the output of the partnership, but to see the impact of the partnership. We've seen it, you know, qualitatively in comments and things of that nature. But what sort of responses have you gotten from the public?
Rebecca: I think the audience really resonates when they see someone be authentic. Paris is truly out there, you know, believing that ADHD is her superpower, uh, embracing that, embodying that through everything that she does. It is really resonating with people. I think when people see someone of influence talk about something that they experience too, there's a lot of healing. There's a lot of, you know, "Oh, I see that. I feel more empowered to talk about that with my community because Paris is doing that and I can reference her, you know, in this space and it provides more understanding for people around them."
It's been really beautiful. Paris looks at every single comment that comes through.
Nathan: That's amazing.
Rebecca: It is. But if you scroll on socials, particularly around, you know, when we're communicating these issue areas, like she's responding because it matters to her. It matters to her how people are responding to the work and what they're saying and how they feel. It helps us figure out where we need to go in deeper and what we need to do next.
I think a really good example of that is, "ADHD is my superpower". Paris truly, truly believes that it is. As do we at 11:11, we really, really embrace it. But it also comes with a little bit of dissonance when, you know, people don't feel like it can be their superpower because they don't have those resources to enable it to be.
Nathan: That's where it gets hard, right? Everybody needs to find their superpower, but it has to come from within. One of the things that people have to overcome is self-stigma, or the fact that the world around them isn't shaped for them or so a lot of what you're doing, and especially through Paris and what Paris is doing, is giving people that light, showing people it can be done.
Rebecca: I think the nuance, we don't want to push away people that have those negative feelings about it. It's really important that we understand why they don't feel it is and what can we do to change that or to reframe the conversation for them too. I think the reason why we go kind of so far on the spectrum of "ADHD is my superpower" is because it has been so heavily stigmatized and there's so much negativity around the area that how can we go the opposite way and bring so much positivity and light to it?
However, I think when people, you know, don't feel like it is and and they they tell us that, it allows for us to have those internal, more nuanced conversations as a team with you guys to figure out, okay, how can we make sure that we're speaking to as many people as possible? I think someone of influence is never going to be able to please absolutely everybody in the conversation, but I think in how she's doing it and how she's showing up in the world and how authentic it is, it's doing a lot of good.
(24:13) Navigating personal and professional relationships when neurodivergence is part of the mix
Nathan: We've talked a lot about the work that you've done with Paris to change what I would say, the world. Can you talk about how it's changed how you work with Paris?
Rebecca: It's a really great question. I think this is a continuous journey. I don't think anybody is going to have kind of, oh, we accomplished it all. We now know how to, you know, best support her at every time. But she is so good at telling us what she needs and telling us what's going to work best for her. It's helped me become so much more patient, kind of more broadly, and more kind of inclusive and understanding.
You know, some of the things that Paris loves best is converting things into audio formats because she processes information better, or saying things out loud together before we go to do something, if she's nervous. And kind of building systems of reminders. You know, my brain works very differently. I'm a linear thinker, and she's this beautiful, creative butterfly, as I say. So, you know, how do we meld those two ways of working together? And not just for her, but the people on my team identify as being neurodivergent. I've had to learn how to put different systems in place that don't necessarily make sense for me, but make more sense for them and allow them to be more effective.
In my personal life, I have really had to reflect a little bit because we're out here changing the world, as you said. I didn't say that first, but I appreciate the compliment. My sister was diagnosed with ADHD when she was in middle school, and we did not talk about it at all. I mean, she was put on medication and we kind of never talked about it again. She was always referenced as my little sister. She's so much more creative than me. She's so spunky, she's so incredible. What would it have been like for her if we had embraced it more in the home and we had talked about it?
As I'm doing this reflecting and out there, you know, really leading this work, I really need to go back and ask her those questions too. Like, we love being 30,000 feet up in the air and really looking at these systems and we're advocating to support millions of people. But the actual work happens at home or in your community or in your religious setting. Like, how can you impact one person? At the end of the day, that's really all that matters more than the data points that we can share on the success that we've had.
Nathan: Well first, thank you for sharing that personal story. It's meaningful to I'm sure a lot of people who have siblings or others who are diagnosed and you look back and you're like, wait a second, that explains something or a lot or whatnot. Something else you said really resonated with me, you know, you change the format of how you communicate with Paris with audio. Podcasts are audio, which is why multi-media delivery of information, content is so important because you don't have to do something one way. You should look for the best way that is indicative of how you learn. I think you're right, that impact is one-on-one, but I think you've also gone above and beyond in talking with brands. Have you seen anything changing with brands in this area? Are brands, companies, or anybody else following your lead? Have you seen an upswing in people understanding what neurodiversity is in your conversations?
Rebecca: I hope so. I think we're at the really early stages of those conversations. I think in showing how ahead of the curve and how innovative, you know, Google and Android is with Gemini, etcetera, one, we hope to lean in more there. And two, we hope to bring more brands on this journey. You know, 53% of Gen Z is identifying.
Nathan: It's the future.
Rebecca: It is the future.
Nathan: It's the future of work, it's the future of people who shop. A $2 trillion market.
Rebecca: Exactly. So how can we include this messaging? I do hope that, you know, Paris and 11:11 are included in that conversation and can help co-create these campaigns alongside you guys and alongside these brands that want to come in with us.
Nathan: And if any brands are listening, let us know. We're happy to connect.
Rebecca: Please. We do great work. It gets millions of views. No, but I mean, I mentioned the data points, etcetera, and and they are important because I always go back to like that rule of seven. Like, you have to see something seven times or whatever to have it really be embedded in your brain and, uh, and create that understanding. So we are really looking across entertainment, across products, across experiences to bring this more into the forefront and drive awareness.
Nathan: Before we leave, talk about where people can watch "Paris & Pups" or "Inclusive by Design".
Rebecca: So both "Paris & Pups" and "Inclusive by Design" are actually on YouTube. We believe YouTube is an incredible platform because of its reach across the entire world. But yeah, "Paris & Pups" has its own channel. That's what it's called, "Paris & Pups". There is kind of bite-sized kids' content for families. We didn't talk a lot about "Paris & Pups", but I think what's really fun about it, one, you guys advised on it. And two, we actually don't name that two of the characters have ADHD in the series. We simply focus on how they exist in the world. That's kind of enough. And then we wrap it around with, you know, educational content on the side and takeaway packets for families. But please watch it and and, you know, let us know where you guys kind of see the ADHD thread through that show.
Then "Inclusive by Design" is a three-part series that's hosted on Paris Hilton's channel on YouTube.
Nathan: Great. Check it out, watch, like, share, subscribe, do all the things all the time, multiple.
Rebecca: And let us know what you want next, because "Inclusive by Design" is not going away. We're already talking about a season two and how it can be translated into new workspaces, into other people's homes, into traditional school environments, etcetera. So we're excited to see where it goes.
Nathan: So with that, we will thank you so much, Rebecca, for joining us today. And thank you for all the work you, Paris, and the rest of the team are doing on behalf of learning and thinking differently.
Rebecca: Thank you. We couldn't do it without you.
Nathan: Thank you.
Thanks for tuning in to "Minds at Work". I hope today's conversation inspired you to think differently about how to harness the power of neurodiversity in business. If you want to know more about our guests today or the work we're doing here at Understood.org, please check out the show notes.
For those looking for resources to better advocate for themselves and others, please visit u.org/forwardlook.
"Minds at Work" is brought to you by Understood.org. Understood.org is a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering people with learning and thinking differences, like ADHD and dyslexia. If you want to help us continue this work, donate at understood.org/give.
The show is produced by Julie Subrin and Alison Hoachlander. Mixing is by Justin D. Wright, with production support from Andrew Rector. Briana Berry is our production director.
From Understood.org, our executive directors are Laura Key and Scott Cocchiere. And I'm your host, Nathan Friedman.