twins!

Fraternal Twins Give Identical Twins the Side-Eye at Annual Twins Festival

Did you know there is a hierarchy among twins? And that identical twins are viewed as somehow more exotic and fun to be than fraternal ones? That’s what The Wall Street Journal learned by attending the annual Twins Days gathering in Twinsburg, Ohio. (Yes, that is a real place.)

I feel shafted here because everybody looks the same,” said Matt Wickert who was attending the festival with his brother … “There’s a caste system for twins, and identicals are in the upper caste,” said Jennifer Wood, of Crystal Lake, Ill., who has 21-month-old fraternal boy twins. Ms. Wood said a stranger once told her husband, after learning the boys weren’t identical, that they weren’t “real” twins.

Barbara and Katherine Marschik, 18-year-old twins from Greensburg, Pa., said they sometimes feel cheated that they aren’t identical. “We never got to be that set of twins that [fooled teachers] and switched around in class,” said Barbara Marschik, who identified herself as “twin b,” because she was the twin that emerged last from the womb. She arrived 24 minutes after her sister did.


That seems to make sense. But Barbara, if your problem is feeling cheated by genetics, maybe the first step toward feeling better is to stop referring to yourself as “B.”

At a Convention Full of Them, It’s Apparent Not All Twins Are Created Equal [WSJ]

Fraternal Twins Give Identical Twins the Side-Eye at Annual Twins Festival