Black And White Twins: Meet Teen Sisters You Wouldn’t Believe Are Twins
Twin sisters, Lucy and Maria revealed that they have to show their birth certificates to friends to prove that their not just related, but are actually twins. This is because Lucy, with her fair complexion, red hair and blue eyes is white; and Maria, with her darker skin, brown eyes and head of thick curly hair is black.
“No one ever believes we are twins because I am white and Maria is black,” Lucy explained. “Even when we dress alike, we still don’t even look like sisters, let alone twins.”
The sisters’ different coloring comes from their mixed-race parentage and a rare genetic twist, which doctors say has a “million to one” chance of occurrence. Their mother Donna is half Jamaican and their father Vince is white, and in 2007 they birthed one white twin and one black twin.
After giving birth naturally to the twins, Donna was shocked when the midwife handed her the babies, as the scans hadn’t prepared her for their contrasting skin tones.
“It was such a shock for her because obviously things like skin color don’t show up on scans before birth,” said Lucy. “So she had no idea that we were so different. When the midwife handed us both to her she was just speechless.”
The twins’ differences don’t just lie in their appearance, with Lucy studying Art and Design at Gloucester College and Maria studying Law and Psychology at Cheltenham College, the girls’ personalities are almost just as dissimilar.
“Maria was outgoing whilst I was the shy one.” Lucy said. “But Maria loves telling people at college that she has a white twin – and I’m very proud of having a black twin.”
The sisters, 18, have three older siblings – Jordan, 21, Chynna, 22 and George, 23.
“Our brothers and sisters have skin which is inbetween Maria and I. We are at opposite ends of the spectrum and they are all somewhere inbetween.” Lucy stated. Adding that no one believes she and Maria are sisters, let alone twins.
“Friends have even made us produce our birth certificates to prove it.” said Lucy.
The rare twins were never able to harness some of the benefits of ‘twindom’ like switching identities to trick friends and classmates.
“We were in the same class, but no one had a problem telling us apart. Twins are known for swapping identities. But there was no way Maria and I could ever do anything like that.
“Most twins look like two peas in a pod, but we couldn’t look more different if we tried. We don’t look like we have the same parents, let alone having been born at the same time.”
Twins who are not identical come from separate eggs and inherit different genes. So because their mother, Donna, carries genes for both black and white skin, Lucy inherited one code and, by chance, Maria inherited another.
[Image via Barcroftmedia/Mirror]
