SVW Exclusive: The identity of LonelyGirl15
By Tom Foremski - September 12, 2006
One of the most interesting questions in the online world is who is LonelyGirl15? We think we know who she is.
Late last week it was revealed that LonelyGirl15, aka "Bree" was not a real 16 year old videoblogger, and her appearances on YouTube were scripted and produced by a professional team.
The creators of LonelyGirl15 published a letter "To Our Incredible Fans." In it they say:
We are amazed by the overwhelmingly positive response to our videos; it has exceeded our wildest expectations. With your help we believe we are witnessing the birth of a new art form.
It goes on to say:
Right now, the biggest mystery of Lonelygirl15 is “who is she?” We think this is an oversimplification. Lonelygirl15 is a reflection of everyone. She is no more real or fictitious than the portions of our personalities that we choose to show (or hide) when we interact with the people around us.
While we know she is a fake, who the actress is has stayed a secret.
However, after some online searching and thanks to Google's cache of online sites, Silicon Valley Watcher believes it has found the identity of the actress that played "Bree."
She is Jessica Rose, a 19-year old actress from Mount Maunganui, New Zealand. She recently moved to Los Angeles/Hollywood area to find work.
You be the judge:
Here is LonelyGirl15 from her vidblogs:

Here are a few images of Jessica Rose:
![]()
![]()


LG15.com for more info and a discussion board.
Tag: LonelyGirl15
By Tom Foremski - September 12, 2006 | Permalink | Category: New Rules Communications
| SVW Newsfeed | SVW Toolbar | SVW Newsletter | SVW Mobile
- NEW STORIES:
- Saturday Post 2: Since There Is No Objective Way To Gauge Search . . . Brand Will Win
- Saturday Post: Is Apple About To Launch Apple Search?
- Newswatch 4.4.08: iTunes is No. 1
- Upcoming Speaking Events... And Lunch At Your Place
- Out & About: Entrepreneurs Talking About Recession- Are Angel Investors In Trouble?
- Newswatch 4.3.08: MySpace Music: DRM-free with streaming
- Four More Silicon Valley Minutes...
- ThoughtLeader Interview with Jon Flaxman: Driving Change Across HP's Global Business Groups
- PR Pitch Facebook Experiment Ends . . . A New One Begins - Are We Connected?
- Newswatch 4.2.08: CTIA attendees fall for Mars hoax
Comments (29)
Matt Foremski and Tom Foremski;
It would be a pleasure if you could please visit http://alissabrooke.proboards56.com/index.cgi?board=fans&action=display&thread=1158038202&page=1 to relay how the identity was broke by you genius'. Virginia Heffernan, of the NYT's, and many have used this forum to gather clues and track her identity and the same contributors frequent the community who originally found the CAA connection. (Several are wondering if "Jessica" who began the IP trace and who refused to identify herself and mysteriously disappeared was closer to the truth than anybody knows.) If you could stop by and post it would be appreciated. We are all wondering "How'd you do it"
Best Regards,
LGsleuth
Posted: September 12, 2006 7:24 AM
Great Tom! Congratulations to this scoop. Erbil
Posted: September 12, 2006 10:24 AM
ha! That's awesome. I'm from Mount Maunganui but now live in LA... I've been following this saga from about two weeks in. Now i've emailed all my friends at home to see if anyone knows her or her family as it's a smallish town and we're not much older than her. :)
Posted: September 12, 2006 1:08 PM
That's hilarious. I've been to Mt. Maunganui, NZ, and have friends from there. I should ask around, too.
Posted: September 12, 2006 1:51 PM
This is part of her bio. That should give you more than enough info to get all the scoop finalized.
2004 · Dearly Beloved (New Zealand Short Film Academy, Directed by Leah Salvisan) -- Lead (Bride)
Posted: September 12, 2006 1:58 PM
Check this link out:
Is this where she went to school, and "studied to be an actress"?http://www.oldfriends.co.nz/LookingForThread.aspx?id=244117
Posted: September 12, 2006 2:31 PM
If you look at a cached Google page we found her name may actually be Jessica-Lee Rose. The page also lists her training and some minor acting experience.
Posted: September 12, 2006 3:06 PM
IMDB has a Jessica Rose listed as a makeup artist on three productions, all filmed in New Zealand.
http://imdb.com/name/nm2180154/
Posted: September 12, 2006 3:17 PM
I think you are all being a little stalker-ish. I mean, the production team came out and said, hey, its a fake, we used an actress. And now you've done some sleuthing and you found out the actress's name. Great job. But now you want to find out all these personal details about her and I think thats a little freakish. Let it go. It's over. You are bordering on invasion of privacy when you start trying to get her personal information.
Posted: September 12, 2006 7:23 PM
Here is her myspace.com profile from Google's cache:
">http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:Z-rCB0llHlQJ:www.myspace.com/21355632+jeessss426&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=2%20-->
Posted: September 12, 2006 8:14 PM
Hey Tom - Too much fun! =) I got roped into this story too - indeed the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. I'd be curious how many hits this brings you .... came here from BoingBoing ...
John
sundayreader.com
Posted: September 12, 2006 8:39 PM
i think your all retarded for actually being interested in something like this
Posted: September 12, 2006 9:33 PM
Fascinating... nice sleuthing Matt!!!
Posted: September 12, 2006 10:18 PM
jess_23456789@hotmail.com
Posted: September 12, 2006 10:38 PM
http://www.fresnobee.com/state_wire/entertainment/story/12708533p-13405449c.html
Posted: September 13, 2006 1:43 AM
Nice work, this web page made New Zealand's TV3 news tonight!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMiCRgxujUA
Posted: September 13, 2006 5:47 AM
Im amazed anyone thought she was only 16.
Shes a terrible actress.
Posted: September 13, 2006 7:47 AM
Way to go Matt!
Posted: September 13, 2006 10:32 AM
The newly discovered videos and photos of Jessica Rose are digital fabrications professionally created from the images made by the 16 year old girl in the lonelygirl15 YouTube videos. Her history as an actress is has also been recently created and is fabrication.
All of the recently released images and the history of her being an actress is part of a campaign to change the publics perception of the girl in the original videos. lonelygirl15 was developing a large following cult following on YouTube with young impressionable teens.
The newly found images have been professionally created and digitally modified using the original lonelygirl15 images found in the YouTube videos.
If you want a good story you should have someone look into who provided the funding for this recent campaign and why. It would also be quite interesting to know what exactly the young girl in the original YouTube videos was involved in with regard to her religious beliefs.
Posted: September 13, 2006 11:50 AM
For those of you who have accounts on MySpace, I started a group for people to join for Jess. This is a FAN group...not a place to come and bash "lonelygirl for being a fake." =] http://groups.myspace.com/jessicarose
Posted: September 13, 2006 2:39 PM
i'm from mt maunganui and actually know jessica rose. I was stunned to see her on the nz news last night and had no idea that all this youtube stuff was going on, i'm sure if anyone else who knew her was aware of what was going on they would have said who she was. As for me: In my opinion I am rather disappointed in Jessica for lying and doing what she's doing. It is creative, I will give her that, but how sad to have to resort to pretending to be a 15 or 16yr old when you're only 19 yourself. Sorry Jess, but it really is a shame all this happened, the country is laughing at you.
Posted: September 13, 2006 8:31 PM
She wasn't lying, she was acting, and she did a damn good job. If you even read this article, these videos were produced by a professional team. I can only speak for myself but I am definitely laughing at you and your inability to get your facts straight.
Posted: September 13, 2006 11:22 PM
Hey, I wouldn't say the country is laughing at her. You sound like you have a personal agenda, mtlocal. I think more likely the country is amazed, and secretly chuffed that Aotearoa has this connection. But hey, who can generalise about what the country is thinking? I, however, just think it's interesting : the power of the internet and a local girl has made the most of it to launch herself as it were, just like John Mayer did with his music career, if it was him who was discovered at mp3.com. Youtube is about being creative - good on them for pulling it off and hooking so many in. Since when does everyone online tell the truth 100%? Or are you the type who thinks "I read/saw it online, so it must be the truth." As the tui beer ads would say, "yeah right." The internet is a boon for anyone with a creative bent who wants to try their hand at 15 minutes of fame. What's there to laugh at about that?
Posted: September 13, 2006 11:47 PM
Louise, I hope your comments claiming that the new photos of Bree are fakes are sarcasm, otherwise you need to really wake up and stop being a True Bree-liever. You've been had, plain and simple.
Posted: September 14, 2006 12:32 PM
On todays CNN interview she's talking with an american accent, she left NZ 8 months ago ! that's pathetic, she's another Martin Henderson - I don't mind actors putting on an accent in films but in reality that's insulting, hat's off to Russell Crowe for staying true !
Posted: September 15, 2006 12:57 PM
I think it was great!
It drew people in ( mostly teens I'd say ) and for a few 'episodes' it was believable.
It all fell down due to details, or lack of paying attention to them.
How anyone could have created and registered a fan site a whole month before the first lonelygirl15 blog was uploaded, beggered belief!
It'll be interesting to see how much longer the blogs continue to be posted ( as they've already been filmed a while back as I originally supected ) and how long it takes the viewers/subscribers, to tail off.
I, like the rest of the joe-bloggs population, have not yet seen whats to come ( published blogs ) but can guess,
and the whole rebellion thing is worrying.
I wonder how many kids are watching this Bree-blog, and taking note of her parental backlash. Not a very good moral message to the thousands of viewers.
I said a while back this could have easily been the run up to a film release ( alas I think not now due to overcooking the blogs ) ( Blair Witch style, the twist being the PUBLIC have seen 'with their own eyes' this girl ( who the film is about ) on YouTube. ( instead of like in Blair Witch the 'footage' was shown as part of the film ) The 'credentials/authenticity/history, had been pre-sown on YouTube months before the actual film emerges.
So it MUST be true! say the people as they'd seen the subject of the film, months before, desperately trying to break free from her religeous parents tyranny. The leading up to the 'ritual' that would be her eventual departure from the publics gaze on YouTube.
Tell me if I'm going out on a limb.
Please accept my apologies for my poor grammatical aptitude! heh heh . :o)
Posted: September 15, 2006 5:44 PM
Come on, she did what every actor dreams of.
She captivated people's minds.
The resonance is proof that she connected with viewers.
The 'liars' are the guys who came up with the concept.
Congratulations, Jessica!
Posted: September 17, 2006 1:21 AM
hae i actually were sort ov m8z wif her n im sure she isnt 19 coz wen i was 3rd form she was 5th and im now 7th! she used to go owt wif my boyfriendz m8 den she left 4 america!
it was sad to c her go but datz wat she wanted to do. i guess itz kinda f***d up wif this whole 'youtube' thing but wat wud u do 4 money? i dont actually think she was owt to hurt ne_1 n ive heard a ruma dat all ov these short clipz r gona end up in a movie i soooo cant wait! n 4 every1 owt there who is against jess realy needs to ask themselves wat level wud i step dwn to 4 xtra cash? n stop hating on her coz shez realy the swetest chik ull eva know on the insyd n outsyd shez nothing but swethart!!!
Posted: November 12, 2006 10:04 PM
2 days ago, "lonelygirl15" wrote a message to me at my YouTube account
Posted: October 24, 2007 1:24 PM