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- Photographer's eerie lookalike inspired a search for world's best dopplegängers</p>
<p>Alexa Juliana Ard, USA TODAY July 18, 2025 at 1:07 AM</p>
<p>Over the last 25 years, French-Canadian photographer François Brunelle has traveled the world photographing around 250 pairs of doppelgängers.</p>
<p>Doppelgängers, which translates from German to "double walker," originally meant ghostly counterparts of a living person. In folklore and literature, encountering someone who could be your twin has traditionally been viewed as a bad omen. But in modern usage, the term often describes two unrelated people who closely resemble each other. This concept is the focus of Brunelle's photography series, "I'm Not a Lookalike!"</p>
<p>The inspiration for the project came from his own lookalike: Mr. Bean, who is played by British actor and comedian Rowan Atkinson.</p>
<p>After being told for years that he looked like the character, Brunelle watched an episode that included a scene he called "awkward" to see his doppelgänger in.</p>
<p>"I said, 'Oh my God, it looks like me, and he's taking a bath!'" said Brunelle, who felt like he was watching himself on TV.</p>
<p>Upon realizing he couldn't be the only lookalike, Brunelle started photographing doppelgängers together. Some of the pairs he captured didn't see the resemblance, "which can be quite surprising (and entertaining) at times," Brunelle admitted via email to USA TODAY.</p>
<p>He started his project in Montréal with lookalikes he knew in Canada. As media coverage grew and word spread on social media, he received thousands of messages from people worldwide. Many of the doppelgängers he photographed know each other in real life and were made aware of their resemblance to each other after being told by others, like Ester Scholten and Agnes Loonstra.</p>
<p>In 2013, Loonstra was approached by a man on a train in the Netherlands. He mistakenly thought she was one of his university students, Scholten, and encouraged Loonstra to reach out to her.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Scholten learned about this encounter from her professor. Out of curiosity, Loonstra decided to find Scholten on Facebook. Scholten shared a translation of the first message she ever received from Loonstra with USA TODAY.</p>
<p>"Hi Ester, probably a bit of an unexpected message, but recently I was approached on the train by a man, and he thought I was you! After some confusion, he said he was a teacher of yours and asked me if I was a girl from Arnhem. Very funny, apparently, he was so amazed by the resemblance (in his eyes) that he insisted I should google you because we seemed so alike. Haha! So here we are... Do you see the same resemblance? 🙂 maybe the ginger hair, bangs and almond-shaped eyes? 🙂"</p>
<p>Scholten felt like she was seeing herself when she saw photos of Loonstra on Facebook.</p>
<p>"Even our mouths look somewhat similar. So strange!" Scholten wrote back in her messages to Loonstra.</p>
<p>They both found their resemblance surprising because they felt their features were so distinctive that they thought they were unique.</p>
<p>The two decided it would be fun to meet, and when they did, they realized it wasn't only their looks that were similar.</p>
<p>"There were a few moments during that first encounter that were almost terrifying, such as the moment we both pulled up a chair to put our feet on and the moment we laughed at the exact same time and discovered the way we laugh is so similar," Scholten said.</p>
<p>(L-R) Agnes Loonstra and Ester Scholten smile for a selfie during the first year of their friendship.</p>
<p>Loonstra was 25 and Scholten was 30 when they met on May 4, 2013. At the time, Loonstra was part of an a cappella group that had rehearsals in Scholten's hometown. People waved at her, thinking she was Scholten.</p>
<p>"People I knew told me I had been rude for not saying anything when I passed them," Scholten said.</p>
<p>So Loonstra began waving back at the strangers, followed by a text to Scholten to let her know.</p>
<p>From their very first meeting, a friendship was born as they discovered they shared love for the same music, literature and what Scholten calls their "intense" love of cats.</p>
<p>"About half of all our WhatsApp conversations are about cats," she said. "We are proud crazy cat ladies."</p>
<p>From that love came the inspiration for a book they published together titled "Crazy Cat Lady," combining Loonstra's skills as an illustrator and Scholten's knack for writing. It was picked up by Workman Publishing in New York and has been released worldwide in English and translated to Spanish, German, Finnish, and even Loonstra and Scholten's native language, Dutch.</p>
<p>(L-R) Ester Scholten and Agnes Loonstra pose for a photo to promote their book "Crazy Cat Lady."</p>
<p>Agnes also played a special role in Ester's wedding as her maid of honor.</p>
<p>"I see Agnes like the little sister I never had," Scholten said.</p>
<p>Although they don't live in the same part of the Netherlands, they try to see each other at least once a month.</p>
<p>Loonstra reached out to Brunelle after hearing about his project from several people who sent it to her. Loonstra and Scholten were later included in a study by the Josep Carreras Leukemia Research Institute in Barcelona with other doppelgängers photographed by Brunelle that confirmed they and the other lookalikes were not related.</p>
<p>2015: Agnes Loonstra and Ester Scholten in Utrecht, The Netherlands</p>
<p>Of the 32 pairs studied, researchers found that the lookalikes share similar DNA variations, particularly concerning genes involved in forming facial features. There were also similarities in height and weight.</p>
<p>The study's lead researcher, Manel Esteller, called it "coincidences of genetics that happen purely by chance," and does not mean the pairs are related.</p>
<p>Despite the study's findings, Loonstra and Scholten are still frequently asked by strangers if they are biologically related, and sometimes, to keep things simple, they just say yes.</p>
<p>Brunelle's website features a callout for lookalikes, and he also created pages on Instagram and Facebook for the project. Brunelle plans to release a book this year featuring about 100 photos of the pairs he's photographed, along with a short story from either the subject or his perspective. He shared a few of those stories with USA TODAY.</p>
<p>2013: Garrett Levenbrook and Roniel Tessler in New York City, U.S.</p>
<p>Roniel Tessler and Garrett Levenbrook | New York City, 2013</p>
<p>"I was born in New York, and Roniel in Washington, D.C. Roniel's friends met me at the University of Michigan four years ago and mistook me for him. They then put us in touch, and we discovered we lived near each other. We have remained good friends ever since." ‒ Levenbrook</p>
<p>2015: Beatriz Nogueira and Bruna Soares Da Costa in Lisbon, Portugal</p>
<p>Beatriz Nogueira and Bruna Soares Da Costa | Lisbon, Portugal , 2015</p>
<p>"I work in human resources, and Beatriz is a student. We were both born in Portugal and have been friends since childhood. We first realized we were look-alikes when people started mixing us up. My own father saw a photo of Beatriz and was convinced it was me! I think we look more alike in profile than face-on. We are similar not just physically, but in personality too. And here is a fun detail, I recently discovered we're both left-handed!" ‒ Soares Da Costa</p>
<p>2013: Karen Chu and Ashlee Wong in Culver City, California, U.S.</p>
<p>Karen Chu and Ashlee Wong | Culver City, California, 2013</p>
<p>"I am a nursing student, while Ashlee is a registered nurse. Most non-Asian people think all Chinese look alike, but that is far from the truth. I consider myself lucky to have met Ashlee, my 'sister' at a traditional Chinese dance performance. Although many people think we look very similar, Ashlee is definitely shorter." - Chu</p>
<p>This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: These unrelated dopplegängers will have you doing a double take</p>
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