You’ve definitely seen it. Maybe it was in a psych textbook back in college, or perhaps it popped up on your social feed during one of those "is the dress blue or gold" debates. It’s a simple sketch. Black ink on white paper. At first glance, you see a glamorous young woman looking away, her chin tucked over her shoulder. But then, you blink. The image shifts. Suddenly, that elegant necklace becomes a mouth. The ear becomes an eye. The jawline turns into a massive, hooked nose.
Welcome to the world of the My Wife and My Mother-in-Law optical illusion.
It’s one of the most famous examples of a "perceptual switch." Your brain can’t see both the young lady and the old woman at the exact same time. It’s physically impossible. You’re forced to toggle between two realities. This isn't just a party trick; it’s a deep dive into how our brains filter the world before we’re even conscious of it.
Honestly, it’s kinda wild that a drawing from over a century ago still manages to go viral every few years.
The Weird History of the Old Young Lady Optical Illusion
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 snarky caption about both being in the picture but only one being visible at a time.
But Hill didn't actually invent it.
He adapted it. The concept had been floating around on German postcards and anonymous advertisements as far back as 1888. It’s an old-school meme. Psychologists eventually latched onto it because it provided a perfect window into "ambiguous figures." In 1930, Edwin Boring—a titan in the field of psychology—wrote a paper on it, which is why you’ll sometimes hear experts call it the "Boring Figure."
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Imagine being a world-class researcher and having your name forever attached to a drawing that looks like a doodle on a napkin.
Why do some people see the young woman first?
It’s not just random luck.
A fascinating study from 2018 at Flinders University in Australia suggests that your own age might dictate what you see. They showed the image to 393 participants ranging from ages 18 to 68. The results were pretty staggering. Younger people almost always saw the "wife" first. Older participants were much more likely to spot the "mother-in-law."
Basically, our brains are biased toward seeing people who look like us.
This is called the "own-age bias." If you’re 22 and you see the old lady first, don't panic—it doesn't mean you’re "old at heart." It just means your brain’s pattern recognition software tripped over a specific line or shadow first. But generally speaking, we prioritize social information that feels relevant to our own demographic.
How the Perceptual Switch Actually Works
Think of your brain as a hyper-aggressive editor. It hates ambiguity. It wants to tell a coherent story about what’s in front of you.
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When you look at the old young lady optical illusion, your visual cortex receives a mess of lines. The "chin" of the young woman is the "nose" of the old woman. The "ear" of the young woman is the "eye" of the old woman.
Your brain picks a path.
- Path A: It decides the central line is a nose. It then builds a face around that nose, creating the old woman.
- Path B: It decides the central line is a jawline. It builds the young woman.
Once the brain commits to one, it suppresses the other. This is a process called "top-down processing." Your expectations and past experiences dictate the reality you perceive. You aren't "seeing" with your eyes; you're seeing with your mind.
The struggle to flip between them is a great workout for your executive function. If you’re struggling to see the "other" woman, try focusing on the very center of the image. Look at the "ear" of the girl. Tell yourself, "That is an eye." Usually, that's enough of a nudge to force your brain to rewrite the scene.
Why This Still Matters in 2026
We live in an era of "deepfakes" and AI-generated hallucinations. Understanding the old young lady optical illusion is more relevant now than it was in the 1900s. It teaches us a fundamental truth: our eyes can be fooled, and our initial "gut" reaction to an image is often a result of internal bias rather than objective fact.
If we can’t even agree on what a static drawing looks like, how can we expect to have a unified view of complex social issues?
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Psychologists like Dr. Julian Hochberg have spent years studying how these "reversible figures" prove that perception is an active, constructive process. We don't just record the world like a camera. We build it. We fill in the gaps. We ignore the parts that don't fit our narrative.
Practical Ways to Sharpen Your Perception
If you want to get better at spotting these shifts—or just want to win the next office debate about an optical illusion—you can actually train your brain.
- Shift your focal point. If you're stuck on the young lady, stare at the "necklace." Imagine it opening up into a mouth. Changing where your eyes land can break the mental loop.
- Look for the "negative space." Sometimes looking at the background rather than the lines themselves helps the brain reset its pattern recognition.
- Cover half the image. Use your hand to block the top or bottom. By removing the context of the hat or the hair, you force the brain to re-evaluate the remaining features.
- Practice with other ambiguous figures. Check out the "Rubin Vase" (the one that looks like two faces or a candlestick) or the "Necker Cube." The more you do this, the more "plastic" your brain becomes at switching perspectives.
The old young lady optical illusion isn't going anywhere. It's a permanent fixture of human psychology because it exposes the "glitch in the matrix" of our own consciousness. It reminds us to be a little more humble about what we think we "know" at first glance.
Next time you see a viral illusion, don't just scroll past. Spend a second trying to find the alternative. It’s the easiest way to remind yourself that there is almost always another way to see the world, literally and figuratively.
Next Steps for Better Visual Literacy
- Audit your first impressions: When you see a confusing image online, wait three seconds before forming a conclusion.
- Test your friends: Show the image to someone significantly older or younger than you and see if the "own-age bias" holds true in your personal circle.
- Explore further: Look into "Gestalt Psychology" principles like "Closure" and "Proximity" to understand why your brain groups certain lines together while ignoring others.