--- title: How Many Girls Are in Photo? Mirror Causes Optical Illusion description: Optical illusion stumps Instagram users trying to figure out how many girls are sitting in front of a mirror in this photo. canonical: https://time.com/4262667/optical-illusion-mirror-girls-photo/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-17T15:27:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T16:05:29.000Z og:title: The Internet Can't Decide How Many Girls Are in This Photo og:description: An optical illusion that has stumped Instagram users og:url: https://time.com/4262667/optical-illusion-mirror-girls-photo/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Internet Can't Decide How Many Girls Are in This Photo twitter:description: An optical illusion that has stumped Instagram users twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # The Internet Can't Decide How Many Girls Are in This Photo > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=b77438ba-7841-47d4-8297-739f72731f6a&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Updated: Dec 13, 2023 4:05 PM UTCPublished: Mar 17, 2016 3:27 PM UTC  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Updated: Dec 13, 2023 4:05 PM UTCPublished: Mar 17, 2016 3:27 PM UTC Question of the week: How many girls are in this photo? A Swiss photographer’s [Instagram post](https://www.instagram.com/p/BCoJDlSIIIx/?taken-by=tizzia) is going viral because users disagree about how many girls are in the image below. The mirror in it is throwing everyone off. Since Tiziana Vergari took the picture for an Instagram art project a week ago, it has racked up more than 22,000 likes and nearly 1,000 comments. The general consensus among the commenters is that there are two girls in the photo, though some maintain there are at least 3 or 4 (maybe “2 twins,” argues one). It is the latest optical illusion to stump the Internet, the most famous one being [“#TheDress,”](http://time.com/3725758/proof-dress-black-and-blue/) a photo that went viral last February because people couldn’t figure out whether the clothing item was white and gold or blue and black. Millions of tweets and social media posts later—including some from celebrities like Taylor Swift—the designer Roman Originals confirmed it was black and blue. A few months later, [some Redditors](http://time.com/3817284/cat-moving-going-up-down-stairs-photo/) started a similar conversation about whether a photo showed a cat going up or down a staircase. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4262667/optical-illusion-mirror-girls-photo/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4262667/optical-illusion-mirror-girls-photo/"},"headline":"The Internet Can't Decide How Many Girls Are in This Photo","datePublished":"2016-03-17T15:27:03.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T16:05:29.000Z","description":"An optical illusion that has stumped Instagram users","url":"https://time.com/4262667/optical-illusion-mirror-girls-photo/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Internet"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. 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