Lonelygirl15 Is Back On YouTube After Seven Years

“It’s okay to be afraid”

Just over 10 years ago, a 16-year-old girl named Bree started a video blog on YouTube documenting her daily life, her home school trials and tribulations, her friendships. and eventually, her experience in a cult. Her popularity exploded and continued to increase until the real secret was revealed: Bree wasn’t real, and her channel Lonelygirl15 was a produced web series. Still, the show went on for two years after the public exposure. And now, Lonelygirl15 is back.

On Thursday—the 10 year anniversary of the first video’s posting—the Lonelygirl15 channel uploaded a mysterious video featuring none other than Bree, actress Jessica Lee Rose, in a very sci-fi tinged monologue. Commenters who likely hadn’t been exposed to the original Lonelygirl15 series were perplexed. “Is this like... Hunger Games bonus footage?” one asked. “This is some The Giver type shit. Weird AF,” another wrote, brushing off the emergence of YouTube’s original celebrity vlogger. Before there was VidCon, before YouTube stars were in magazines, there was Lonelygirl15. Today, the show may not be able to trick viewers into thinking it's real, but it sure can tell a good story.

What’s up Lonelygirl15's sleeve, though, remains to be seen—but it looks like Bree is continuing the storyline, this time for an audience that grew up with the Hunger Games, Divergent, and an insatiable thirst for all things dystopian. Lonelygirl15 may just be back and more intense than ever—and we’ll be watching for what comes next.