Lonelygirl15 Just a Hoax

For the past few months, users around the world have become engrossed with an American home-schooled teenager named Bree who has been posting video blogs via YouTube.com under the screen name "lonelygirl15."

There's just one problem --

Lonelygirl15 is not an American home-schooled teenager named Bree. Rather, lonelygirl15 is a Kiwi actress named Jessica Rose, and the scheme was the brainchild of independent filmmakers from California. (Source: theinquirer.com)

Lonelygirl15 has posted 30 videos over the past few months, discussing various topics such as her strict parents, sneaking out to attend a party, and going hiking with her friend Daniel.

Lonelygirl15's popularity has grown, and her most recent blog has received more than half a million hits. (Source: youtube.com)

The first to discover a clue to lonelygirl15's phoniness was the 18-year-old son of a reporter for a blog called The Silicon Valley Watcher; the teen discovered photographs of an actress resembling Bree.

Recently, three fans of lonelygirl15 worked together to set up a sting on Bree's email address. They discovered that the email address traced back to the IP address of Creative Artists Agency, a talent agency located in Hollywood, California which represents the masterminds behind lonelygirl15's video blogs. (Source: nytimes.com)

Whether lonelygirl15's fans will continue to view her blogs or whether there will be backlash remains to be seen. But one thing is for sure: lonelygirl15 serves as yet another reminder that Internet "reality" isn't always real.