Can You Tell How Many Girls Are In This Picture?

The Internet is full of mysteries, riddles, and weird pictures of babies swapping faces with their adult parents. I guess it was time for something new to melt our brains, which is why you'll spend the next five minutes guessing how many girls are in this picture. While it seems like a simple task, I challenge you to make an educated guess right away. Maybe it's the cleverly placed mirrors or the calculated hand positions, but it is truly jarring to see this picture at first.

Swiss photographer Tiziana Vergari shared the picture on Instagram last week, to the delight and confusion of millions. The comment section lit up with guesses about the amount of girls depicted. Is it four? Is it three? This picture is confusing by all accounts, and it comes close to the level of pandemonium observed after the posting of "the dress" picture. I remember the day that hit the Internet, because we were changed as a nation. Or how about that picture of the three women in the car where no one could guess which woman was the mother? That was my favorite because of all the parodies it inspired. People were trying to show other mother-daughter look-alike duos, but those were easily deciphered.

If you look carefully at the below photograph you can spot how the illusion was conceived. The angle at which it was taken, the mirror placement and the way the girls are sitting all combine to trick the eye into thinking there are a lot more girls than there really are. Initially I was also perplexed by the challenge, but after a few seconds I solved it. Can you?

Spoiler alert: There are two girls in this picture. The shorter one is cleverly hiding the bracelet so it doesn't appear in her reflection.

First, can we give a hand to the girl serving legit FACE to the camera on the left. She is the taller of the two girls, and is working it. Let's not forget to acknowledge the bad-assery of the second girl as well. It's her hands that are causing most of the confusion. It only takes one pose to throw the Internet into a frenzy — if you've need a bit of light reading in the office bathroom today, I highly recommend reading the comments section under this.

International interest is clearly picking up as well. From the more recent comments, it looks like people are starting to figure it out, and most are saying that there are only two girls in the picture. I guess all good things must come to an end. I'm just glad I was there to witness the start of new Internet head scratcher!

Images: tizzia/Instagram