The internet is baffled by this optical illusion of six girls with only five pairs of legs

What looks like a glitch in reality is really your brain trying too hard to make sense of overlapping shapes. At first glance, the viral photo feels impossible. You see one girl standing in front, posed normally, while behind her the second girl seems to vanish from the waist down. Instead of four legs, your brain insists there are only two. The effect is so clean and convincing that it carries a faint sense of unease, as if reality itself has failed to load properly.

The truth is far less supernatural and far more revealing. The second girl’s legs line up almost perfectly behind the first girl’s, merging into what appears to be a single shared pair. Rips in the jeans, the break of bare skin, the angle of the knees, and the matching tones of fabric all snap together like pieces of a visual puzzle that should not fit so well. Your brain, always eager for efficiency, takes the path of least resistance. Instead of holding two separate figures in mind, it compresses the information. A set of legs is quietly erased without your consent.