Difference between revisions of "Lonelygirl15"

Revision as of 23:11, 10 August 2007

Spoiler Warning Warning! This page contains one or more spoilers for the series it belongs to. If you have not seen all episodes of this series or have not fully comprehended some material of the story line, you are highly advised to stop reading this article and move along.

This article is about the video series. For the character with the same username, see Bree.

lonelygirl15 is a fictional video blog, that debuted on YouTube, under the guise of a "real" 16-year-old video blogger, named Bree. In "lonelygirl15"'s earliest videos, she posted video replies to and name-dropped popular YouTubers, which attracted the attention of their fans. Her video blogs eventually became popular in their own right, and attracted a massive following. To further the initial illusion that Bree was a real girl, a MySpace page was set up for her and she began meaningfully correspondence with many of her fans.

Her blogs quickly became very popular, but viewers grew suspicious that lonelygirl15 was not real. The question of whether or not she was real received a great deal of attention in the media, from late August to early September. Fans ultimately exposed lonelygirl15 as a fictitious character played by New Zealand actress Jessica Lee Rose. The Creators of the series were identified as Miles Beckett, Mesh Flinders, Greg Goodfried, and later, Amanda Goodfried.

The series is still running with new videos appearing regularly. Lonelygirl15 won the VH1 "Big in '06" award for Biggest Download, and remains the second most-subscribed channel on YouTube, with over 96,000 subscribers as of July 2007.

Theme and plot

For a complete synopsis of the plot, see The Story So Far...

Main article: The Story So Far...

In the beginning, Bree's videos were similar to those of many other popular vloggers on YouTube. She would make brief videos out of her bedroom about her life, her best friend Daniel, and her conflicts with her parents.

Bree was homeschooled and lonely. Her only friend, who introduced her to YouTube and video editing, was Daniel, whom she met during a brief stint in public school two years earlier. Daniel had a crush on Bree, but Bree's parents wouldn't let her out of the house, and these tensions were behind many of the early videos.

Eventually, it was revealed that Bree was a member of a secretive religion, originally believed to be Thelema but later recognized as the fictional Hymn of One. Bree was selected to participate in a mysterious ceremony for the religion, but eventually ran away from home rather than participate.

Around the time Bree ran away, another character was introduced, an old friend named Gemma. Gemma made video responses in which she offered advice to Bree. However, it was eventually revealed that Gemma was working for the Order and attempting to coerce Bree into participating in the ceremony.

Bree and Daniel lived on the streets for a while, in order to escape the Order. Eventually, a character named Jonas, a rich orphan, offered Bree and Daniel a place to stay. The characters lived with Jonas until the Order tracked them down.

The show gradually abandoned its premise of being a highly-realistic story about a young vlogger. Many members of Bree's religion appear to be evil, going so far as to subject Bree to frequent injections of an unknown substance. Recent plot developments have included the murder of Bree's father, and the revelation that Bree was adopted.

Revelations of fictionality

Initial speculation

Fans of lonelygirl15’s video posts quickly began to wonder if Bree was, in fact, a real person or if the posts were part of a teaser campaign for a television show or an upcoming movie. Others felt that the blog might be part of an alternate reality game.

Daniel attempting to light a candle underneath a picture of Aleister Crowley. For the full story of how fans unearthed the truth behind lonelygirl15, see The Hunt For Bree.

Fans pointed to small inconsistencies within the videos as evidence that the story might not be genuine.

• The website lonelygirl15.com, supposedly created by a fan named Bukanator, was registered in May 2006, several weeks prior to Bree actually uploading her first video.

• Bree had several fights with Daniel on webcam. It seemed unlikely a girl who just endured real fights with her only friend would upload those fights to YouTube.

• The appearance of Aleister Crowley on Bree's bedroom wall seemed improbable.

• The lighting, along with other cinematic elements, also seemed improbable.

Media reports of fictionality

• Richard Rushfield of The Los Angeles Times reported in an article dated September 8, 2006, that three lonelygirl15 fans - Shaina Wedmedyk, Chris Patterson, and an anonymous law student (these three fans are known as the Phorum 3) - set up a sting operation using IP address tracking software that showed that e-mails sent from a lonelygirl15 MySpace account were traced to the offices of Creative Artists Agency, a powerful Hollywood talent agency based in Beverly Hills.

• On Sept. 11 a commenter on the website TMZ.com said that he recognized Bree, and posted a link to her MySpace account. At 1:41 a.m. Sept. 12, members of The Children of Anchor Cove used Google cache to discover that the account belonged to New Zealand actress Jessica Lee Rose. Several other blogs quickly uncovered cached photos of Jessica Lee Rose and took credit for her discovery.<ref name = Applause>Heffernan, Virginia. "Applause for lonelygirl15, and DVD Extras", Screens, New York Times, 2006-09-12. Retrieved on 2006-09-13.</ref>

• Virginia Heffernan of The New York Times, on September 12, confirmed that the Creators of the series are represented by CAA and that CAA was one of several locations used by the Creators of the series to send emails from lonelygirl15 accounts. She identified Miles Beckett and Mesh Flinders as the Creators of the project. One main source for her story was Grant Steinfeld.

• The Los Angeles Times, on September 13th, featured the first interview with the Creators of lonelygirl15, confirming the link between the Creators and the CAA. This story also identified Greg Goodfried as one of the Creators.