Niamh and her twin stranger Karen. Photo / Facebook
Niamh and her twin stranger Karen. Photo / Facebook
A young woman has managed to find her doppelgänger after launching a campaign on Facebook as a social experiment - and their likeness is mind-blowing.
Niamh Geaney, a 26-year-old TV presenter from Dublin, teamed up with two male friends on a project they dubbed Twin Strangers to see who couldfind their closest lookalike within 28 days, and were soon inundated with submissions from all over the world.
Incredibly, Niamh found her match in Karen Branigan, 29, a fellow Ireland native who lives just an hour down the road, making it easy for the pair to meet in real life and take some eerily twin-like photos together.
Speaking to MailOnline about her first meeting with Karen, Niamh said: "I was ridiculously nervous about how I would react to meeting someone who looks like me.
"For the entire duration of our encounter I pretty much stared at her. I couldn't get over her face, and some of the expressions she would pull I would think to myself or say aloud, 'Oh my God that's my face.'
"I can't remember the number of times I said 'this is so freaky'. It was truly amazing."
Karen, who is currently in between jobs, has five sisters and a brother. Niamh has two sisters, and both girls agree that none of their siblings look anywhere near as similar to them as they do to one another.
Niamh said the pair got on "very well" as they both applied make-up before the shoot, swapping beauty tips and marvelling at their similarities.
"I would say Karen is the shyer of the two of us," Niamh remarked. "But then you have to remember this was an even more surreal experience for her than it was for me.
"I knew what search I was embarking on. I'm the weirdo that contacted Karen out of the blue and asked her to meet me in person."
Since meeting, Niamh and Karen - who are both single - say they've been chatting on Facebook "constantly".
While Niamh appears to have beaten her fellow Twin Strangers participants, 21-year-old Harry and 22-year-old Terence, hands down, the search isn't over until April 27.
"I think I have a two, maybe three at a push who resemble me. But they're definitely not as close a match as Karen to Niamh," Harry says.
"I'm trailing further behind," admits Terence. "Must be a guy thing. They tend to be a bit too shy to participate. Not sure if being originally from sub-Saharan Africa has anything to do with it!"
Niamh, who is still promoting the project across social media with Harry and Terence as interest spreads, says there will be no prize for the winner, just "pride".
They are inviting others from around the world to join in too now, by adding users' photos to their Facebook album.
"There is a huge human curiosity element to it," Niamh states. "Can you imagine how surreal it would be to meet someone who looked exactly like you?"
