Woman, 25, confuses pals (and her boyfriend!) by posting photo with surprise newborn baby – but can you tell what’s really going on?
A stunned PhD student was inundated with congratulations after friends thought she had announced a ‘surprise baby’ – only to discover the photo she posted was an optical illusion.
Rebecca McGonigle, 25, from Glasgow, recently posted a photo of herself sitting in her room simply because ‘the lighting was good’ – but it attracted attention for a bizarre reason.
Within minutes, a friend messaged her to alert her that it looked like she had a baby on her lap, and she was soon inundated with congratulations.
The image shows Rebecca’s knees pulled towards her chest, with one kneecap exposed and the other covered by her white skirt.
The pose created an optical illusion where one knee resembled a baby’s head and the other resembled the newborn’s lower body covered in a white blanket – but she found humor in it and kept the post up.
Optical illusion: do you see a baby or a sunny room with distorted shadows making it look like Rebecca has a baby on her lap
Many of Rebecca’s friends told her that her sunny bedroom photo looked like it had a baby in it
Rebecca says some fooled friends asked her if she’d had the baby yet, while others simply said “congratulations.”
Some admitted they had to take another look to realize Rebecca wasn’t holding a child and couldn’t believe how realistic it looked.
The chemistry PhD student says she wasn’t sure whether to delete the post or not, but found the image and its reaction hilarious.
Rebecca left the photo online and showed it to her boyfriend Neil Pitman, 31, who simply said: ‘what the f**k’ – and her family, who she is so happy about, didn’t notice before she did .
She took the photo last Monday and posted it with the caption ‘wee sunny egg’ before confirming just hours later: ‘I’M NOT WITH A CHILD, THAT’S A KNEE’.
The pHd student said: ‘The light was good so I thought I would take a photo to post on social media, but I just didn’t know.
“A few minutes after I posted it, my friend texted me and I was like, ‘oh no,’ and then a bunch of people started messaging me. My knee looks like a baby’s head and my skirt looks like a blanket.
“I was like, ‘What the hell?’ and i wasn’t sure if i should delete it but i thought i would stick with it because it’s funny.
Rebecca left the photo online and showed it to her boyfriend Neil Pitman, 31, who simply said: ‘what the f**k’ – and her family, who she was so happy about, didn’t notice before she did
Rebecca McGonigle, 25, stood in her bedroom wearing a white skirt that her own friends thought was a blanket hiding a baby! She was quick to dispel the rumors but left the funny post up
‘People seriously asked if I had a baby and that was a strange answer. I’m glad my family didn’t see it first and panic.
“I wasn’t ashamed of it because it was funny and my friend was just like, what the fuck is going on?”
Rebecca’s TikTok about the after has been viewed more than a whopping 1 million times since she uploaded it two days ago.
Her friend’s message alerting her to the image read: ‘I love you so much, right [in] your Instagram post. I thought your knee was a baby’s head and your skirt looked like a blanket. I did a double take and it really made me laugh.’
One commented on her original post saying: ‘Congratulations!’ while some even claimed: ‘motherhood suits you so well’.
Another wrote: ‘I thought you were pregnant!’ while another user wrote: omg I thought you were holding a newborn but it’s your knee’.