Marcus Mattsson

June 16, 2006, the first entry in the video diary of Bree aka. Lonelygirl15 aired on YouTube. It seemed like an ordinary vlog, Bree talked about miscellanous stuff in her life, goofed around, created satiric skits etc., but the content of the videos slowly became more private. She started talking about her mysterious religion (called The Order), her strict parents and a ceremony she was about to participate in. Her friend Daniel (aka. DanielBeast on YouTube) tried talking her out of doing the ceremony, this lead to arguments between Daniel and Bree's dad. At this point the videos still seemed some what believable as actual events, but fans were getting suspicious of whether or not this was all set up, and in the end it was discovered that Bree is a 19-year old actress from New Zealand, named Jessica Rose, so Lonelygirl15 turned out to be a well coordinated show, created by a small group of amateur filmmakers. Even though it was discovered that the show wasn't real it still continued (and is still running today).

I find the entire idea of this very fascinating, airing a show that cleverly via YouTube is genious, many viewers were shocked to find out it wasn't real, and this is more or less a completely new form of entertainment. Daniel and other characters from the show aired YouTube videos on their own profiles as well, for example as answers to Bree's videos. In the latest episode, which aired March 26, 2007, we see Bree and Daniel being taken hostage by The Order, the video itself is seen as a kind of surveillance video from The Order's perspective, and many believe this is the end of the show, or maybe some sort of season finale.

Another interesting fact about Lonelygirl15 is the amount of media coverage it received from magazines and news stations all over North-America, especially when everyone tried to discover her real identity, since the discovery Jessica Rose has been in numerous tv-interviews, one as a guest on Jay Leno's talkshow.

A lot of detailed information on the official site: http://www.lonelygirl15.com/
Lonelygirl15's YouTube profile (with all Bree-videos): www.youtube.com/user/lonelygirl15

Interesting articles:
The storyline of the show: Link.
The hunt for the identity of Bree aka. Lonelygirl15: Link.