When senior, identical twins Brooke and Haley White come home everyday, they both have individual conversations with their mom. After having her daily conversation with her twins, their mom tells them that both girls ended up telling her almost the same thing without even knowing it. 

“We share clothes, food, a car, the womb, a face, you name it,” Brooke said.

However, sophomore and fraternal twins Ava and Robert Manieri choose to keep their lives more separate from the other’s. Because they are not both boys or both girls, they do not share much like clothes or a room. The Manieris, while private, can bond over sports; Robert plays football while Ava is a sideline cheerleader.

Outside of practicing at school, Ava helps Robert at home with football. She tries her best to throw him routes that he would usually see in a game. When it is game time and Ava gets to cheer her twin on, she is excited to watch him succeed since she feels she had a small part in his performance on the field. She loves being able to cheer on her family from the sidelines.

“While he works very hard at practice and at home too, when I get to help him and then see him play it’s really exciting,” Ava said.

For Ava and Robert, fraternal twins do not have to worry about being asked who is who on a regular basis especially since Robert is a boy and Ava is a girl. But, for freshman, identical twins Edie and Ellie Wilkins and the Whites, they are often asked this question.

“If I had a nickel for every time we were asked who is who… when we’re together, it is bound to happen at LEAST once,” Brooke said. 

With Ellie being a brunette and Edie a blonde, people do not have trouble distinguishing the two. The Whites’ situation is different; both of them have similar features that are not as obvious. Instead, family and friends rely on facial expressions and habits to tell them apart. Both Haley and Brooke welcome the questions and the confusion; they appreciate the effort to get to know them as individuals.

“It’s actually one of the best indicators of if someone is genuinely interested in getting to know me. It shows that they actually care about me as an individual,” Brooke said. 

One of the most common misconceptions about twins is that they have natural telepathy. These twins say that they do not experience telepathy, though they do have unique ways of communicating with one another. All of the sets of twins understand their duplicate without words so they do not have to speak out loud to be able to catch on to their twin’s thoughts. 

“We tend to finish each other’s sentences and say the same thing at the same time,” Ellie said. 

Twins are together all the time—from growing in the womb to hanging out with each other everyday. Because of this, their bonds are very strong and solid. However, other siblings can be just as close as twins.

“I have a younger sister that I am equally close with as I am with Robert,” Ava said.

Haley says it is hard to love and get along with someone else as much as she does her twin. The Whites know they can go to their twin whenever they are stressed or upset because just each other’s presence is a stress reliever.

 “Even if the world is crumbling around me, I know I’ll always have her, and nothing is more important than her,” Haley said.

This story was originally published on Hagerty Journalism Today on November 18, 2020.