This Crazy Conspiracy Theory About "The Berenstein Bears" Will Blow Your Mind

From Seventeen

You might remember reading The Berenstein Bears books or watching the cartoon when you were little. Or maybe you need to job your memory a little bit? Here's a little clip that'll do just that...

The beloved series of children's books about a family of bears launched in 1962 and continued on to become a TV series in the '80s, a series of computer games, and it even has a movie adaptation in the works right now.

For most of us, the family of bears were a beloved part of our childhood, so you might be shocked to find out that we've been spelling their name wrong the entire time. We've been referring to the series as The Berenstein Bears throughout this post, which probs seemed totally normal to you if you're familiar with the series. BUT that's not right. The actual correct title of the series is The Berenstain Bears - with an A.

Don't believe us? Then turn to the historical source that is Twitter. That's right. The account @TheBerenstains is the "official Twitter home for the Berenstain Bears," according to its bio. You can even buy a book called Big Book of the Berentain Bears.

Apparently, when many fans are made aware of this fact, they can't believe it, remembering for sure that the books they grew up reading DEFINITELY said "Berenstein" on the cover. There are forums upon forums across the Interweb on sites like Reddit, insisting that the name was once Bernstein.

One heroic Reddit user even came through with pictures proving that, at one time, there were books that had been printed with the name "Berenstein":

Someone else even posted a photo of a toy Berenstain Bear. What's so confusing about it is that the doll's label features a banner that says "Berenstain Bears," and directly beneath that there's text that reads: 13" Berenstein Mama Bear. Like... did no one copy edit these labels before they went to print? Who totally missed this massive error?!

Others contesters, however, go back and check their childhood books, and find that the name does turn out to be Berenstain.

Actually, the bears were named after the authors, Stan and Jan Berenstain.

Unable to come to grips with the fact that they had the name wrong this whole time, some fans have even come up with a crazy theory as to why the name was "changed." They believe that the name of the books was actually Berenstein at one point, but we've shifted into a parallel universe - an alternative timeline, if you will - where the title of the books is The Berenstain Bears.

And fans are in denial:

There's actually a name for this theory: The Mandela Effect. The theory states that shared false memories are in fact glimpses into parallel worlds with different timelines and was named by writer and "paranormal consultant" Fiona Broome based on the fact that thousands of people apparently remember Nelson Mandela dying in prison in the '80s despite having been released from prison in 1990 and going on to become president of South Africa. Mandela didn't actually pass away until 2013. But Broome doesn't consider the theory to be crazy or a conspiracy. She believes it's based on quantum mechanics (which is way to complicated to even begin to explain).

There's a popular picture circulating around the web thanks to believers of this theory that they claim to be scanned from an actual book with the "Berenstain" spelling, which they say proves the theory:

But others have insisted this popular image is fake because photo forensics proves it's photoshopped.

But not everyone thinks this is a huge conspiracy. There are many fans who believe a much simpler explanation for the mass misunderstanding: -stein is a much more common suffix in names than -stain, so people simply remembered the series having the more common spelling by mistake.

Guess we'll never know for sure, but the last one sounds pretty reasonable to us. How about you? Do you remember the name being Berenstein or Berenstain?

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