People on TikTok think this photographer is the spitting image of Arya Stark — and she got Maisie Williams' attention
- Sonja Lovdal is an art director and photographer from Denmark, but people on TikTok think she might as well be Arya Stark.
- Lovdal has been aware of her resemblance to "Game of Thrones" actor Maisie Williams for years, but has never been all that convinced about it.
- She told Insider it's mostly her friends who say she is the spitting image, but plenty of people must agree, because a TikTok she posted that compares their likeness has been viewed over 5 million times.
- "I don't want to be like that girl who looks like Arya Stark," she said. "But I can't really do anything about it and people will keep commenting. So I might as well give the people what they want!"
Sonja Lovdal, an art director and photographer who lives in Denmark, joined TikTok about two months ago and people quickly realized she resembled a television star.
She took part in the #flashwarning trend, where TikTokers use images or videos of their famous lookalikes that quickly alternate between footage of themselves in the same costume. Lovdal's doppelganger, as her followers continually remind her, is Arya Stark from "Game of Thrones."
"Is this what you want?!" Lovdal captioned the video, showing her and Stark making the same movements, which has been viewed over 5 million times.
Lovdal told Insider that before posting it on August 2, she asked her parents if they thought she'd be able to reach 10,000 TikTok followers. Afterwards, "everything went crazy," and she now has over 34,000.
"I've always been told that I look like her and one of my friends told me to do that challenge," Lovdal said. "And he was like, 'It's going to blow up, trust me, it's going to blow up,' and I was like, 'Sure, whatever. I'm just going to post it.' And then it did blow up."
'I don't see it as much as other people see it'
Lovdal has been told by her friends and family that she looks like Maisie Williams, the actor who played Stark on "Game of Thrones," for years. She said she's so used to being compared to her, she didn't think people's minds would be blown by it.
"I don't see it as much as other people see it obviously," she said. "Because you see all the kind of small things in your own face, but everyone else is like, 'You look identical to her.'"
Lovdal is using her newfound momentum on TikTok as a way to boost exposure on her other platforms: Instagram and Facebook.
"Now I'm just rolling with it, it's fun," she said. "I don't want to be like that girl who looks like Arya Stark. But I can't really do anything about it and people will keep commenting, so I might as well give the people what they want!"
Lovdal's TikToks have confused a few people, though. In a couple of livestreams viewers have asked her whether she really is Williams or not. She can't always tell if they're being serious or making a sarcastic joke.
"Every five minutes I have to be like 'Hey, no I'm not her, I'm from Denmark,'" she said. " "There are a few people who are like, 'Are you working on any new shows?'"
Maisie Williams has seen them now too
Williams herself has seen Lovdal's videos now and even posted one to her Instagram story. Lovdal said she immediately messaged all her friends joking that she was going to be famous.
"I would imagine she's like me, where I kind of get it but also I can't really see it because you see all the parts of your own face that other people don't see," Lovdal said. "But she wrote something like, 'Oh I wish my eyes were as blue as this girl's eyes.' And I was like, 'She loves my eyes!' That was fun."
Lovdal is excited to continue experimenting with her TikTok account, especially as her followers are genuinely interested in her as a person and her expertise with product photography and not just the fact she looks like Jon Snow's half-sister.
"I haven't posted as much since I made the video, just because it's a lot of pressure to do something good," she said. "Now I'm at, I think 34,000 followers, and it just keeps going up. I didn't expect the video to live for this long, so I'm just waiting to see where it ends, or where it stops, or where it takes me."
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