According to the National Center For Health Statistics, around 3.6 million babies are born each year in the U.S.A, and around 3% of those births are twins. Twins can be identical (where they have the same features and share almost identical DNA) or fraternal (where they share similar features, but look different.) In Morgan, there are four sets of twins. Pawprint met up with them to learn what it’s like being a twin and the struggles it comes with.
Grace Holecz, a junior here at Morgan, is a fraternal twin to Emma Holecz, meaning they share some similar features, but look different, Grace has blonde hair, while Emma has brown hair. Even though they are different, they have someone they can talk to, “the best thing is like you have a built-in friend,” said Grace, “As we’ve grown up, we’ve gotten close together.”
Despite growing up together, the Holecz twins grew into liking different things, “I went more like the dance route and more of the arts, and she [Emma] went sports,” said Grace.
“So I do a lot of dance, and she does like clubs for all the sports, so it’s a lot of money,” said Grace. “She [Emma] does soccer and basketball.”
Another set of fraternal twins are Seren and Mekai Howard, both juniors here at Morgan, who have very different lifestyles than the other. “With academics, there’s some subjects that either I’m better than him at, or he’s better than me,” said Seren, “and so, you know, it’s kind of like a little competition.” Both siblings are in AP classes and sports, leading to a costly combination. AP classes require students to pay for the exam, and Seren, who alongside her brother, takes AP classes “they’re like, $100 per exam, and we are both taking four, I think,” said Seren. In total, for both students, it would cost them at least $400 individually.
Nathalie and Brandon Avilia-Hernandez are another pair of fraternal twins. “In Spanish we say meiso, so that’s like one girl, one guy, and we obviously don’t look alike,” said Brandon. Nat and Brandon are a twin pair out of five siblings, with Nat being the younger twin by 2 minutes.
“I think me and Nat are like the sun and moon,” Brandon said, “ but like we both can be the sun or the moon.” Both Brandon and Nat grew up playing with each other, signing Disney songs and just spending time with each other.
For sports, Nat does soccer, and Brandon usually does theater and manages some sports. “I don’t spend anything on sports, even the ones I manage,” said Brandon, “but for theater, I have to buy, like, costumes and stuff like that, or like my own pieces sometimes. But that’s about it,” said Brandon.
While there are more fraternal twins in the Morgan school, we found a pair of identical twins, Paige and Katherine Abbott, two juniors who have been mistaken for the other twin. Due to the Abbott sisters being twins, they always experience “being grouped together as the same person,” Paige said, “That sounds like simple, but when I say something to somebody and they say, ‘the twins said that’, it’s kind of grouping us in as one person” said Paige.
Due to Paige and Katherine being identical twins, they feel like they are both grouped into one person, and not having their own identity. However, Paige came up with a clever plan to help identify which twin is which: “Kate [Katherine] always likes having her hair down, and I really like having my hair up,” said Paige, “that’s often what people use; they’ll see my ears, and they’ll be like, oh, she has a bunch of piercings. Like, that’s Paige.” Paige embraces the fact that they both like to dress differently, putting her hair up and adding a lot of piercings. Her newest being a septum piercing.
Being a twin can come with its pros and cons, like having a built-in-friend, a person they will grow to be close with, just like any other siblings, but there are times when they will be confused with each other. Each day they go to school with their own identity instead of being grouped as a single person.
