Outed lonelygirl15 says media storm 'insane'

Lonelygirl15 Jessica Rose left New Zealand in 2005.

The New Zealand actress behind lonelygirl15 has spoken publicly about the phenomenon.

Jessica Rose, an actress originally from Mount Maunganui now trying to make it in Los Angeles, told MTV about her character Bree, the rebellious and often-naive teenage girl who became a YouTube sensation.

"She's quirky, she's fun she's naive and sweet," said Ms Rose.

"She is somebody who everybody can relate to in some way. She's the Everygirl. She's just somebody you would love to meet and be friends with."

Ms Rose has suddenly found herself at the centre of big media attention after the lonelygirl15 video diaries were outed as a fake.

"I never really thought so many people would care about my life," said Rose, on MTV.

"It's been insane. I've had so much attention given to me that I didn't expect. This is not what I'm used to doing in my daily life."

Rose was identified after fans began to suspect that Bree, the home-schooled precocious teen hosting the segments, did not exist. Amateur sleuths unearthed clues, and stories about the show appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and other publications, finally forcing the three creators of the Lonelygirl videos to come forward.

Rose told the Associated Press that she left New Zealand and returned to Maryland in 2005 after her parents split and later that year moved to Los Angeles to study acting at the New York Film Academy.

She was born in Salisbury, Maryland and moved to New Zealand when she was eight.

After graduating in April she started scouring various internet sites for auditions and came upon a listing on the Craigslist website for a project called Children of Anchor Cove.

It turned out to be an internet series of short, three minute diary items about Bree and her study friend, Daniel. But Rose was not allowed to reveal her true identity.

She told MTV that the creators of the series told her, 'Pretend that you're Madonna' and go out incognito in sunglasses and hat.

"In the beginning I was going out a lot more, but towards the end it was too much of a hassle. I was worried I was going to be the one that ruined the project."

She had been initially worried about being on the show.

"I was hesitant because [I thought], 'This is weird, this is the internet. Who's going to watch this?' " Rose told interviewers.

Those who knew Ms Rose watched in astonishment as the web went wild about her story.

"People are fascinated by it," said Mount Maunganui College senior administrator John Pringle. "She had a fairly low profile here."

He said Ms Rose attended the school in 2000 and 2001 and was involved in drama, dance and theatre sports.

"She was quite good at improvisation," he said.

She also entered a lip-synching competition and, though highly placed, did not win.

Academically, Ms Rose was "a steady, above-average student".

She left school at the end of Year 10 (fifth form) and moved to Auckland in 2003 to study at the private screen acting school, Studio 111.

"She was very ambitious but she did have a few challenges," owner Sally Spencer-Harris recalled. "She wasn't someone who immediately took to acting like a duck to water."

But Ms Spencer-Harris said what Ms Rose lacked in talent, she made up for in passion.

"She did work very hard and became good ... She was absolutely determined to go to America and become an actress."

Now, she said, the challenge for her "bright, bubbly, really cute" former student was turning her new-found fame into lasting success.