A pregnant Donna Aylmer wept when she learned, 20 years ago, she was having twin girls—one more baby than she expected to give birth to. While this is not an uncommon reaction for parents learning they are having twins, what shocked her even more was their very different appearances when they were born.
Most twins, when born, share similar traits, a fact often true for siblings as well. However, Aylmer’s twins, Lucy and Maria, came out looking so strikingly different that it shocked their parents. Red-haired, pale-skinned, blue-eyed Lucy looked nothing like her dark-skinned, brown-eyed and dark-haired sibling with curly hair, Maria.
Twenty years later, most people still cannot tell the sisters are twins, let alone even siblings. In fact, the girls have had a hard time throughout their lives proving they are even related. Born from a half-black, half-white mother and a white father, the opposite appearances of the girls stunned most onlookers. As the girls aged, their appearances became even more drastically different.
Lucy Aylmer reflected on her experience growing up with her sister, “No one ever believes we are twins. Even when we dress alike, we still don’t look like sisters, let alone twins. Friends have even made us produce our birth certificates to prove it. … 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.”
Not only are their appearances different, the two sisters are very different in personality. The more extroverted Maria is much more people-friendly than her more introverted sister, Lucy. However, the girls are very close and tell people they are best friends, and that they balance each other out very well.
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Although the girls are now used to people often not believing they are siblings, they are more than accepting of who they both are.