How One Woman Tracked Down Her Doppelganger

Social media is helping us find them, via trio's 'Twin Strangers' project
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 22, 2015 5:03 AM CDT
Your Doppelganger Is Out There
A screen shot from YouTube video featuring Niamh Greaney's experience.   (YouTube)

There are surprisingly few factors that define our facial appearance: In a group of 600 people, "we only needed 44 separate variables to express all the variation that could exist in the face," one scientist tells the Washington Post. That helps explain the impressive results of three young Irish people in search of their doppelgangers—people who look just like them. In what they call the Twin Strangers project, Harry English, Niamh Geaney, and Terence Manzanga have given themselves 28 days to track down their lookalikes, with help from social media, the Post reports. Turns out Facebook is really living up to its name. "The power of social media is so crazy, so intense, you would not believe it," Geaney says.

The three alerted the world to their quest via a website, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram. After two weeks, the results were pouring in: some 6,000 messages a day, many of which were from others wanting help finding their own doppelgangers. It's all paid off for Geaney, who has found the alarmingly similar-looking Karen Branigan—who lives just an hour from her. "For the entire duration of our encounter, I pretty much stared at her," Geaney tells the Daily Mail. "I can’t remember the number of times I said, 'This is so freaky.'" English and Manzanga are still working on finding doppelgangers, but there's certainly hope, as videos on their site attest. In fact, Geaney was inspired by a journalist who managed a similar feat in 2011, Mashable reports. You can connect with the project on Facebook. (Are these celebrities further indication that doppelgangers exist?)

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