Niamh Geaney, along with her friends Harry English and Terence Manzanga, launched a campaign in social media on March 30. Dubbed "Twin Strangers," it's a challenge project aimed at finding their closest lookalike in just one month.
The three friends used YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram in "hunting" for their face matches. They also used their official twinstrangers.com site and even word-of-mouth as part of the hunt. People can help them in their search by submitting their pictures if they think they are the doppelganger that the three have been looking for. They can also tag their friends who they think would make a perfect face match.
"The power of social media is incredible," said Niamh. She added that a number of submissions kept pouring in from anywhere around the globe which include the U.S., Israel, India, Philippines, South Korea and New Zealand.
Two weeks after launching the campaign, Niamh got lucky and met Karen Branigan who she believes is her closest resemblance to date.
"I found Karen through the power of social media and this weekend we met up in real life!" wrote Niamh on Facebook. "Not going to lie, we were both pretty freaked out about seeing our double in the flesh."
Niamh Geaney is a 26-year-old TV presenter who hails from Dublin while Karen Branigan is 29 and comes from Drogheda which is only an hour away from Niamh's place.
The two finally met in person the past weekend at Niamh's place in Dublin.
"For the entire duration of our encounter I pretty much stared at her," said Niamh. "I couldn't get over her face."
While the two have siblings of their own (Niamh has a brother and two sisters while Karen also has a brother and five sisters), they admitted that none of their siblings look even a bit similar to them compared to the level of resemblance they share which they find a little "freaky" yet "amazing" at the same time.
An old adage says that every person in the world has at least six other people who they resemble. In the twinstrangers video, at least two people (one from Australia and the other from London) also sent in their entries before Karen came in, which made Niamh lead in the race.
Harry and Terence are yet to beat Niamh's lead.
"I think I have a two, maybe three at a push who resemble me," said Harry. "But they're definitely not as close a match as Karen to Niamh."
"I'm trailing further behind," said Terence. "Must be a guy thing. Not sure if being originally from sub-Saharan Africa has anything to do with it!"
The Twin Strangers challenge is still on and people can still send in their entries or even suggest their friends. There is no prize for the winner though. Niamh said that the best thing that the winning pair could achieve is simply a "sense of pride."
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