Double The Trouble

Everyone has met a set of twins whether that be just out in public, or family. 

Having a twin is like having a built-in best friend. You always have someone to rely on, someone to talk to, and someone to be with. However, sometimes people can mix you both up, which can get extremely annoying.

As a twin, I often get mistaken for my sister, even though we do not look alike because we are fraternal. Through my lens, and other twins, we feel as though we look nothing alike, but that is not what other people see.

Everyone has a good chance of having twins; in fact, 1 out of 250 people have twins according to the NHS UK. This surprised me because there are clearly a lot more twins in the world than I  anticipated. Also about 1.6 million twins are born each year, which is also insane to me. 

However the happiness twins can bring comes with a cost, due to having to buy double the amount of things that you would need for one baby. The price can skyrocket from as low as 21k for one baby to as high as 105k for two babies. This could cause a huge money problem for many families, because not everyone has enough money for this. 

There are truly only two types of twins: identical and fraternal. Identical twins are exactly how it sounds, they look almost identical to each other (with a few different features depending). They are conceived from one fertilized egg, which ends up separating into two embryos. They share the same genetics due to coming from the same egg, and are the same gender. 

Fraternal twins are a little more complicated. This happens when two eggs are released at the same time with a different sperm fertilizing each egg. Fraternal twins share about the same percentage of chromosomes, as other siblings would, about 50% according to the National Human Genome Research Institute. Fraternal twins can be different sexes, because they are developed from different eggs.  

Some common misconceptions and myths about twins are:

• Twins have the same fingerprints: This is false. Identical twins share the same genetic makeup, but they have their own fingerprints, made up by genetic and environmental factors. 
• Twins skip a generation: This is false. Chances of getting twins is higher when your mom’s side of the family has twins, but this doesn’t mean that this can skip a generation. 
• Twins can feel each other’s physical sensations: False, despite random stories of twins claiming to feel what the other twin feels, we do not have any scientific evidence to prove that.  As a twin, this one just feels like a weird assumption because we are two different people. We do not share the same body. I do not know how this would even work. 

Having a twin is one of the best things in my life. I truly am grateful to have someone daily by my side. I wish everyone would experience life with a twin, because even if we fight sometimes, we still love each other very much.