You’ve seen it. Everyone has. It’s that scratchy, black-and-white sketch where you either see a glamorous young woman looking away or a weathered old woman with a giant nose tucked into her fur coat. It’s basically the "Blue Dress/White Dress" of the 20th century, but way more sophisticated. This image, titled My Wife and My Mother-in-Law, is probably the most famous optical illusion young old woman fans ever obsess over.
It's weirdly frustrating.
Once you see one version, the other sometimes just... vanishes. You stare at the chin of the young woman, and suddenly it’s the nose of the old woman. The young woman’s necklace? That’s the old woman’s mouth. It is a literal battle happening in your visual cortex. But here is the thing: what you see first isn't just random luck. Scientists have actually spent years looking into why our brains choose one over the other, and the results are honestly a little bit call-out culture for our subconscious biases.
The Secret History of the Young Old Woman
Most people think this drawing started with a British cartoonist named William Ely Hill. He published it in Puck magazine back in 1915. He titled it "My Wife and My Mother-in-Law," with a cheeky caption about how both are in the picture. But Hill didn't actually invent it.
He adapted it.
The concept is way older. We’ve found versions of this "ambiguous figure" on German postcards from the late 1880s. It was used as an anonymous piece of folk art, a visual puzzle meant to be shared over coffee. It eventually migrated to advertisements and psychological kits. By the time it hit mainstream American media in the early 1900s, it was already a certified viral hit—long before the internet existed.
Psychologists love it because it’s a "perceptual multistable" image. That’s a fancy way of saying your brain can’t hold both views at the exact same time. It’s an either-or situation. Your neurons are basically 1-0 toggles. You’re either in the "young woman" camp or the "old woman" camp at any given millisecond.
Why Your Age Changes What You See
In 2018, researchers at Flinders University in Australia decided to get serious about this. They conducted a study with 393 participants ranging in age from 18 to 68. They showed them the optical illusion young old woman for just a fraction of a second.
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The results were wild.
Younger people almost always saw the young woman first. Older people? They saw the mother-in-law. Specifically, the study found that for every decade older a participant was, the likelihood of seeing the older woman increased significantly.
It's called "own-age bias."
Essentially, we are socially conditioned to recognize and prioritize faces that look like our own age group. Our brains are lazy. They look for the familiar. If you're 22, your brain is scanned and tuned for 20-somethings. If you're 70, you've spent decades looking at peers in that age bracket. This isn't just about eyesight; it's about how your brain categorizes the world before you’re even consciously aware of what you’re looking at.
The Anatomy of the Trick
Let's break down the actual lines. If you're struggling to flip the image, here is the roadmap.
The ear of the young woman is the left eye of the old woman. That’s usually the "pivot point" for most people. If you focus there, the image starts to wobble. The young woman’s chin is actually the bridge of the old woman’s nose. It's a sharp, angular line that serves two masters. Then there's the velvet ribbon around the young girl's neck. In the "old" version, that's just a thin, grimacing mouth.
It’s genius.
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The artist used "global" and "local" processing features. Your brain tries to see the whole (global) before the parts (local). If you see the big shape of the hood first, you might lean "old." If you catch the profile of the cheekbone first, you're going "young."
Why Some People Get "Stuck"
Have you ever shown this to someone and they just can't see the other person? They get angry. They think you're lying.
"There is no old woman, you're crazy."
This is a real psychological phenomenon. Once your brain builds a mental model of an image, it’s incredibly hard to break that "top-down" processing. Your brain thinks it has solved the puzzle. It says, "Okay, that's a lady in a hat. Moving on." It takes a massive amount of cognitive flexibility to force the brain to re-interpret those same pixels as something else. People with higher "openness to experience" (a trait in the Big Five personality model) often find it easier to flip between the two.
It's Not Just About Eyesight
Culture plays a huge role here too. Some researchers suggest that how we read (left to right versus right to left) affects where our eyes land on the canvas first. Since the optical illusion young old woman is oriented toward the left, our scanning patterns dictate our first impression.
Also, consider the lighting.
The high contrast of the sketch mimics how we perceive depth. If you interpret the white space as "foreground," you see the young woman’s face. If you interpret the white space as "background" or a large nose, the old woman appears. It’s a masterclass in how shadows can deceive.
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How to Master the Flip
If you want to train your brain to be more flexible, stop looking at the whole image.
Focus on the very bottom. Look at the "necklace." Tell yourself, "That is a mouth." Cover the rest of the image with your hand if you have to. By isolating the features, you bypass the brain's "global" shortcut. Once you see the mouth, slowly move your hand up. You’ll see the nose. Then the eyes.
Suddenly, the old woman will snap into focus.
It’s a great exercise for "cognitive reframing." If you can change how you see a bunch of lines on a screen, it's a small reminder that you can change how you perceive complex situations in real life. Perception is not objective. It is a construction.
Actionable Insights for Your Brain
You can actually use this illusion to test your own mental state or even help others understand the concept of perspective.
- Test your bias: Show the image to a child and an older relative. Note the difference. It’s a great way to explain that two people can look at the exact same thing and both be "right" even if they see different things.
- Practice "Gaze Shifting": Use the ear/eye pivot point to try and toggle the image back and forth as fast as possible. This is a legitimate way to improve visual-spatial flexibility.
- Check your surroundings: Try looking at the illusion in dim light versus bright light. The change in "contrast sensitivity" can often force your brain to switch versions.
- Use it for empathy: The next time you're in a heated argument, remember the young/old woman. Remind yourself that the other person might just be seeing the "nose" while you're looking at the "chin."
The optical illusion young old woman isn't just a party trick or a 100-year-old meme. It is a fundamental proof that our reality is filtered through our age, our culture, and our biological wiring. We don't see the world as it is; we see it as we are.