Boys, Boys, Boys

The male obsession with twins. We’ve all heard about it before. Bri and I personally don’t understand it. What is the big deal about being with twins?

I would really love to have this question answered, but this blog isn’t about the workings of the male brain; it’s about questions I’ve been commonly asked about being a twin.  The question I’m talking about this week is actually similar to the male love of twins. Do twin girls want to date twin boys?

(Is this the future we hope for? Well, minus the very terrifying style choices?)

It’s an odd question that I’ve never really thought about before, so I decided to ask Brianna what she thought about it. I love her, but her response was somewhat terrifying to me.

In a nutshell, she thinks that it would be awesome to date and even marry twins, but only if they were also identical twins. This way, when we had children one day, they would look like each other. Her idea was that she could trade them if her baby was harder to handle than mine and that I would never notice because the babies would look the same. I’m pretty sure she was joking, (Hopefully! She has an odd sense of humor sometimes!) but I do wonder if our children would look really similar. Hmm…

Anyways, are twin girls always on the lookout for twin boys? I would honestly say I can’t give a yes or no answer to this question. For one, we have never met any identical twin boys, so I don’t know if we’d be attracted to them. Second, I’ve never been out on a hunt looking for twin boys. So, I would probably say no to this question. I feel like we would just go after the boys we like regardless of whether they were twins or not. Honestly, I don’t know! I’ve never met any…yet.

image from: http://theamazingfoxworthblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/schpiel-worlds-worst-couples-that.html

What Interests You?

Some people like math, some people like reading, some like shopping, and some like playing sports. Everyone has their own unique interests and find things fascinating that others don’t. Is this true for twins? Or do twins have the have the same interests as each other?

Brianna and I really like a lot of the same things. For instance, if you look in our closet, it is obvious that we both share an obsession for shoes. (There may be around 100 pairs in there!) We also share a love for shopping, going out with our friends, going to the beach, and even the Chicago Blackhawks. We love our Chicago sports teams! For the most part, we share a lot of interests as each other.

Since we live together and practically do everything together (well not everything, that would be really weird), shouldn’t we have all the same likes and interests? Nope! There are lots of things that I enjoy doing that Brianna doesn’t or vice versa. For instance, I like to read, but Brianna loves it. She can sit down and read an entire book in one day whereas I’ll get distracted halfway through the book and find something else to do. I love making scrapbooks and making things, like posters and projects, “cute.” Brianna, on the other hand, always says she lacks in the creative department and I always end up helping her decorate things.  Also, I have a preference to the color pink and Bri likes purple. Oh, and my favorite number is 5, hers is 8.

Ok, so these aren’t major differences or anything like that, but we do have our own individual likes and interests that make us different from each other. (Hey, it’s something!) It’s just these little things that make us feel different from each other, even if they don’t seem too different to everyone else!

Picture from: http://www.creativeclass.com/creative_class/_wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/shopping-bag.jpg  

Hey Friend!

Sure, twins have the same genetic makeup and look almost completely identical. Even the clothes we wear most of the same are also practically the same. With all of these similarities, does that mean that twins also have the exact same friends?

For Brianna and me, sharing has always been a common occurrence. We shared a room for most of our lives, we share all of our clothes and shoes, and we have always been given gifts to share. With all of this sharing going on, it only makes sense that we would share friends as well, right?

Bri or I will bring a new person out with us to go shopping or just hang out. Even if they only knew one of us at first, eventually they will become friends with both of us. It’s probably because we do pretty much everything together!

We even share the same best friend, Dominique, a girl we’ve known since kindergarten!

I really don’t mind sharing all of these friends though. You would think that it would make our social circle smaller because we have pretty much all of the same friends, but this is not the case at all! It might be because we meet new people all the time and introduce them to each other. Or maybe asking if we’re twins is a nice conversation starter? I really don’t know to be honest, but it’s really nice having a large group of friends to just hang out with. :)

So, to answer the question, I believe that most twins really do have the same friends. I know we do!

image from:https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz8sKC_0JY7J9-LlGZGnJj7RZZD4Ae_YrHjINEeNnTDOwiIDUXnPLMaFsTx_x6J5GW5Xl899nmSIMCgH4bsalnVPuOEdbeQaRWNQVIs4k_CLazx6QCMPaNudgYusEoRlexi1WXA6HE7vd_/s1600-r/bigstockphoto_Three_Girl_Friends_Celebrating_212140.jpg

Do All Twins Dress the Same??

It’s always fun to dress like your friends isn’t it?! Well, not really…but Bri and I tend to dress almost identical whether we like it or not. Even when we don’t have to dress exactly the same, we usually do!

Well, maybe the picture above isn’t the best representation (it was THON weekend after all), but we run into matching outfit situations like this on a daily basis. Bri and I share a lot of our clothes with each other pretty much every single day. It is really great having a double closet, don’t get me wrong, but a lot of the outfits we have are exactly the same or just different colors. This usually wouldn’t really be a major problem. I mean, we just have to make sure that we don’t wear the same thing, right? Nope! A problem always arises because Bri and I have classes at different times. She starts class earlier than me on some days and I don’t see her before she goes to class. (I can barely wake up on time for my own class, yet alone wake up early just to check out her outfit!) When we meet up later for lunch, there are times when we look exactly the same and it just makes us laugh! I mean IDENTICAL. Even our hair will be pulled the exact same way and we’ll have the same shoes on. It’s really weird! This doesn’t always happen, but a lot of the time if we don’t match entirely, we’ll have the same headband, pair of jeans, or same color shirt on.  I guess that’s what we get for liking the same things!

Like most twins, when we were babies and little kids, my mom would dress us in the same outfits. Apparently at age 3, however, we began to refuse to wear matching outfits. We would settle for matching colors sometimes, but that was it! We went through this stage for many years, even in High School. We just wanted to look different, to be different people. Now, we just find it funny when we have the same outfit on. It has led to many interesting conversations and reactions. Plus, sometimes it’s just fun to confuse other people!



Some Friendly Competition...

So, who really is the “better” twin? At least once a day, it seems like Bri and I are put up against each other and compared. I guess it’s bound to happen. Maybe people are just curious about who has better grades or who is better at playing sports? The questions don’t really bother us too much because we’re really a lot alike.

However, some of the comparisons made between us are actually somewhat offensive. Instead of referring to Brianna and I by our names, some people will say “You know, the prettier twin,” “the smarter twin,” and even “the fatter twin.” It’s not like Bri and I look the same or anything like that…

With all of these comparisons, are Bri and I always in competition with each other?

A little sibling rivalry is pretty normal for every family and a little competition never hurt anyone. With that said, Bri and I also engage in little competitions between one another. However, these competitions are very subtle. It’s like we only know about these competitions because we keep them to ourselves. When we’re in the same classes as one another, we secretly hope that we’ll get the same grade as one another because then one of us is not “smarter” than the other one. It really is no fun coming in second place to your twin, especially when other people point it out. I know other siblings are compared against each other, but when people say, “Oh I thought you two were supposed to be the same,” it feels like you are not being who you are supposed to be.

In high school, for instance, I sat next to a boy who referred to Brianna as the Alpha twin. He would make comments about how Bri was the better twin and that I was inferior to her. This was all because she got one point higher on a psych test! Comments like these can really get to your self-esteem!

So, Bri and I are actually in competition with each other even if we’re not the ones who want to be compared against one another. It’s mostly the influence of other people!

Good Question...

I was out with my some of my friends last night and, once again, the topic of twins came up. There were the typical guessing name games and the surprised faces people we met gave us when they found out we were twins. We had heard the typical array of questions once again (not that we minded), but then my friend Tami asked a question that I’ve always wondered about as well: do twins have the same fingerprints?

I really didn’t know how to answer her question. I know that identical twins share the same DNA and look practically the same, but genetically, would everything be identical? Could two people really have the exact same fingerprints?

When I got home, I decided to research twin fingerprints myself to see if Bri and I had the same ones or not.  I assumed that there was a great possibility that our fingerprints would be exact copies. I mean, we have the same DNA, why not fingerprints?

It turns out that this is not the case. According to EarthSky.org, although identical twins have similar fingerprints, they are not exactly identical. However, the fingerprints of twins are more similar than two people who are not related to each other. (Well that makes sense!)

Why would Bri and I have the same DNA, but not the exact same fingerprints? According to forensic-evidence.com, there are two reasons why identical twins have varying fingerprints. For one, genes determine only the general characteristics of the pattern that develops on the tip of the fingers. Because they are general characteristics, they vary from person to person, including twins. Also, when babies are still in the uterus, the skin on their fingertips is in contact with amniotic fluid. They also touch other parts of the uterus, themselves, and the other fetus. Because of this, the cells on their fingertips are in flux which creates different patterns on the fingers. Thus, different fingerprints!

I guess everything about identical twins really isn’t exactly the same. (I’ve been telling people Bri and I are different for years!) Even though it’s not a distinguishable way to tell us apart, it shows that we really are different. So, to answer the question, no, identical twins do not have identical fingerprints.

Resources: 

http://earthsky.org/health/identical-twins-fingerprint

http://www.forensic-evidence.com/site/ID/ID_Twins.html

Picture from: http://symblogogy.blogspot.com/2007/09/fingerprint-biometric-system-delivers.html

Secret Speak

Do you have a secret language with your best friend that only both of you can understand? Many of us, it seems, can give our friends certain looks and show gestures to suggest what we’re thinking and feeling. These friends are able to pick up and comprehend these gestures and looks. However, do you have a secret dialect that you share with someone else? Me neither. How cool would that be though?



A lot of the time I am asked whether Bri and I have a certain language which we just have with each other. As much as I would like to say yes (I think it’d be pretty cool to talk about the cute guy across the room without anyone else knowing what we’re talking about!), we speak the same language as pretty much everyone in the United States: English. Boring, I know.

I’ve always thought these secret twin languages were really interesting, but I didn’t know anything about these languages and why they exist. How do they develop? Why do they develop? What do the languages really sound like? Is it good or bad for the twins involved? Armed with these questions, I decided to research what secret twin languages really are.

According to HowStuffWorks.com, this language shared between only twins is known by many terms such as twin language, idioglossia, and cryptophasia. Many twins, however, have delayed or poor speech development. This can occur in one twin or both and their speech and interactions between one another are misinterpreted as a secret language. It basically sounds like baby babbling when they speak to one another.

Many researchers believe that this delayed development in speech, and according to this website, is caused by a low birth rate and prematurity. This happens to occur in 60% of twins. Some researchers also believe that this type of development happens because twins spend more one-on-one time with each other, not their parents. This interaction can influence their language development.

So, do secret twin languages not exist? Although most of the time there is language development problems involved, according to the article, there are still twins that make up their own secret languages to communicate. Secret twin speak, although rare, is not a myth. Pretty cool, huh?

References:

http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/life/genetic/twin7.htm

http://www.twin-pregnancy-and-beyond.com/images/TwinTalk2.jpg