Here at Ida B. Wells, we have an abundance of twins. With approximately 66 individuals who are twins, we may wonder what it’s like to be a twin.
Twins are born when two babies are produced from one pregnancy. There are many different types of twins, most common being identical twins and fraternal twins. Identical twins form when one sperm fertilizes one egg, and the fertilized egg (zygote) splits into two embryos. The embryos share the same placenta and the same DNA. Fraternal twins, who are not identical, happen when two eggs and two sperm are fertilized to form two embryos and they have different placentas and different DNA.
Some other more rare forms of twins include: superfetation twins, mirror-image twins and polar twins. Superfetation twins occur when a woman is already pregnant and she becomes pregnant with a second baby, making the babies different ages. The babies are usually born at the same time. This is extremely rare however, with only 10 cases worldwide.
Mirror-image twins are identical twins with opposite features (as if they were looking in a mirror). For example, if you were a mirror image twin you may have a birthmark on the right side of your face and your sibling has one on the left side of their face. Polar twins are formed from one single egg and two sperm, meaning that they share the same chromosomes from their mom, but they get different chromosomes from their dad. So, they share about 75% of their DNA. That means they’re somewhere in between fraternal and identical twins.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report more than 132,000 sets of twins out of 3.9 million births of all kinds each year, about 3.4%, or 1 in 30. According to anecdotal reports at Ida B. Wells, the grade with the highest number of twins is juniors and freshman, both with nine pairs of twins (36 total individuals). Next is the sophomore class with eight pairs of twins (16 total individuals). Lastly, there are seven pairs of twins (14 total individuals) in the senior class. Overall, this makes 66 individuals who are twins, and out of 1,500 students this translates to at least 4.6% of people who attend IBW are twins. This is almost double the global average of 2.4% of the population being a twin. Additionally, IBW has one set of triplets in Grade 10.
As the majority aren’t twins, it’s common to wonder what it’s like to be a twin. Beckett and Jacoby Lungren are juniors at IBW, and they’re identical twins. “I can always go to him, I trust him. We still fight sometimes, we argue, we’re brothers,” Beckett says. “He’s always there. We’ve been doing everything together since being born the same day,” Jacoby continues.
While “twin telepathy” isn’t real in a literal sense, the Lungren twins have a bond beyond the average sibling closeness. Beckett says, “We’ve known each other for our entire lives, we’ve spent so much time with each other that I know what he’s thinking because we know each other so well,” The concept of twin telepathy is linked to the identical twins sharing the same DNA, resulting in the same physical thinking patterns in the brain. “There’s a little something, a little power, a secret power twins have, a secret we gotta keep,” says Jacoby. This secret power might be exclusive to identical twins however;
“I haven’t experienced any as far as I can tell,” Marley Kealing, a fraternal twin and IBW junior says. Jace Korb, another junior fraternal twin adds, “maybe if you’re identical but not with us. I wouldn’t say we’re too close, we have our own things we do.”
For some, having a twin may not be as interesting as it seems. Jace says, “[Being a twin] it’s nothing special … we don’t really have to share, we end up doing different things.”
Marley adds, “we’re not really super close, so it’s just like another sibling, but I see him a lot more since we’ve been in the same class a lot. Sometimes it’s more fun because we’re in the same grade so we’re doing a lot of stuff together.”
Being a twin also comes with struggles, “it kinda sucks being grouped up together all the time, you wanna be a different person, not always just tryna be the twin brother,” Jacoby says, “We’re our own people.” While someone might be a twin, they’re also much more than that. “A lot of people treat us like we’re the same person, like if he says yes that means I say yes,” Beckett adds, “talk to us individually, we’re different people. People don’t recognize that.” Jacoby adds, “half the people at this school cannot tell us apart, people will come up to me and dap me up thinking I’m Beckett. I don’t tell ‘em, and other kids don’t even know we’re related.”
As the IBW twins explain, being a twin goes deeper than just looking like someone. It’s important to remember twins are their own separate people, and to treat them as such.
