Lonelygirl15

lonelygirl15
Also known asLG15
Lonely Girl 15
Genre
Created byMiles Beckett
Mesh Flinders
Greg Goodfried
Amanda Goodfried
Directed byMarcello Daciano
Colin Hargraves
Glenn Rubenstein
Amanda Goodfried
Jackson Davis
Kevin Schlanser
Mesh Flinders
Miles Beckett
Yumiko Aoyagi
StarringJessica Lee Rose
Yousef Abu-Taleb
Jackson Davis
Becki Kregoski
Alexandra Dreyfus
Maxwell Glick
Katherine Pawlak
Bitsie Tulloch
Crystal Young
Melanie Merkosky
Raegan Payne
Voices ofKevin Schlanser
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons3
No. of episodes547
Production
Executive producersAmanda Goodfried
Glenn Rubenstein
Greg Goodfried
Mesh Flinders
Miles Beckett
Yumiko Aoyagi
ProducersAmanda Goodfried
Glenn Rubenstein
Mesh Flinders
Miles Beckett
Yumiko Aoyagi
Production locationsMarin County, California
EditorsAmanda Goodfried
Colin Hargraves
Glenn Rubenstein
Ian Schwartz
Kevin Schlanser
Miles Beckett
Camera setupSingle-camera
Running timeVaries
Original release
NetworkYouTube
ReleaseJune 16, 2006 (2006-06-16) –
August 1, 2008 (2008-08-01)
Related
LG15: The Resistance
KateModern
N1ckola
LG15: The Last
LG15: Outbreak
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)

lonelygirl15 is an American science fiction thriller web series created by Miles Beckett, Mesh Flinders, Greg Goodfried, and Amanda Goodfried. It was independently released on YouTube from June 16, 2006, to August 1, 2008, and was also briefly released on Revver and Myspace. The series revolves around the initially mundane life of homeschooled 16-year-old Bree Avery (Jessica Lee Rose), who uses the username Lonelygirl15 online. She goes on the run with her friend Daniel (Yousef Abu-Taleb) after her parents' mysterious religion is revealed to be The Order, a blood-harvesting operation that wants her "trait positive" blood. The series is presented through video blogs, or vlogs, originally recorded solely from Bree's bedroom.

After discovering YouTube in 2005, Beckett, then a doctor, came up with the idea for a series of staged video blogs presented as though they were real, and set out to create Lonelygirl15 with Flinders, a filmmaker. The two wrote a script and came up with the character of Bree together. Greg and Amanda Goodfried, both lawyers, were brought on to handle the business aspect of the project and to manage Bree's online affairs, respectively. Bree's first few vlogs were posted to the Lonelygirl15 YouTube channel in June 2006, and they quickly gained popularity on the website, with users believing Bree to be a real person making videos about her everyday life. Lonelygirl15 eventually became the most-subscribed YouTube channel a position it held for 226 days in late 2006 and early 2007 during which it became the first YouTube channel to reach 50,000 subscribers.

As the series gained popularity, viewers began to question its authenticity, and users of the Lonelygirl15.com forum soon found proof that it was fake after messaging Bree on Myspace and tracing her IP address to the offices of Creative Artists Agency, where Amanda Goodfried worked. A story published by the Los Angeles Times revealing this information, as well as a post on journalist Tom Foremski's blog Silicon Valley Watcher revealing Rose's identity, led to the project being outed as a hoax in September 2006. Viewership for the series continued to grow after the reveal, and it experienced its highest viewership in 2007.

Bree has frequently been called YouTube's first viral star, and Lonelygirl15 became known for calling into question the authenticity of web content and for pioneering vlogging. Over the course of its release, Lonelygirl15 won a Webby Award and a VH1 Big in '06 Award, and was nominated for a YouTube Award. EQAL, a production company founded by Beckett and Flinders, produced several spinoffs of the series, including KateModern and LG15: The Resistance.

  1. ^ Sources that refer to Lonelygirl15 as supernatural:
    • Blevins, Joe (June 20, 2016). "Lonelygirl15 is creepier than ever in her first video since 2008". The A.V. Club. Retrieved May 21, 2022.
    • Heffernan, Virginia (January 24, 2007). "As Her World Turns, Lonelygirl15 Seeks New Thrills". The New York Times. Retrieved May 21, 2022.
    • Dobbs, Sarah (August 6, 2007). "A tribute to LonelyGirl15". Den of Geek. Archived from the original on May 10, 2022. Retrieved May 10, 2022.
  2. ^ Sources that refer to Lonelygirl15 as a thriller:
  3. ^ Sources that refer to Lonelygirl15 as science fiction:
  4. ^ Sources that refer to Lonelygirl15 as a drama:
  5. ^ Sources that refer to Lonelygirl15 as a soap opera: