OFP Blog The Adventures of Being an Identical Twin

Catie’s family portrait from 1996 or 1997. I was only about 5 or 6 years old at the time. I’m at the bottom right and Carrie is above me. My older sister, Andrea, is at the top and my parents are left and center. Me (left) and Carrie today. My name is Catie and I’m the designer at OFP and I am an identical twin. My twin’s name is Carrie and we like to call each other Twinno. She used to hate it when I called her that but has since adopted the endearing nickname because we are the only ones who can call each other that. Having a twin is honestly not much different than having a sibling. I know, I know, you’re disappointed, but there are a few differences:  You share a bond like no one else. We’ve had some people tell us we act like an old married couple and I’m pretty sure that’s true. You share pretty much everything: thoughts, feelings, clothes, tastes, and attitudes. You confuse people on who is who without even trying. You even do the same things and don’t even realize it. You get a LOT of stares for looking the same (we don’t even dress the same and yet people still stare at us).Being a twin can confuse a lot of people. For example, in school if we had a class together and we were not sitting together, assigned seating, Carrie would go to the teacher and ask a question and within ten minutes or so, I would go up to the SAME teacher and ask the SAME question in almost the SAME exact way. This naturally confused many teachers over the years because they would need to do a double take and ask themselves, “Didn’t she just ask me that?” We would also confuse new friends if we didn’t have the same classes (which we did most of the time, even in college, because we are both graphic designers. Go figure). I can’t tell you the countless times that Carrie’s new-found friend would come up to me and talk to me as if I knew them. It was awkward to tell them, “You got the wrong twin” and they’d sheepishly apologize because sometimes they didn’t know she was a twin or couldn’t tell the difference between us. As awkward as that was, I usually gained a friend without having to really introduce myself. Bonus!Top 5 favorite things about being a twin:Sharing clothing. We don’t really do this anymore because someone *cough* Carrie *cough* wouldn’t give back the clothes they borrowed.We can do everything together.She knows everything about me.Conversation starter. Built-in best friend.Top 5 least favorite things about being a twin:She knows how to push my buttons and will do so without mercy.She takes credit for something I did because she thinks she did it. (This more so when we were kids and not as adults.)She knows everything about me.Conversation starter. Sometimes I don’t want to get asked the same questions over and over about what it is like to be a twin.She repeats what I say at the same time!Top 5 questions people ask us about being a twin:Do you play tricks on other people? No, we don’t. I know other twins would or have (we had childhood friends that were also identical twins that would totally play tricks on anyone they could) but Carrie and I were already having a hard enough time just getting people to tell us apart and it wasn’t something we considered fun. Who is the evil twin? Please do not ask a twin this question. It’s like asking someone you just met if they are evil and that is just weird. But if you must know, Carrie is the evil one … clearly. Do you have a secret twin language? We used to have one when were toddlers but our mom put a stop to that because she didn’t want us to conspire against her—actually—she was afraid we wouldn’t do well in English if we continued to have our own language.Can you read each other’s minds or read each other’s thoughts?  No, we can’t but we do think very much alike so it can almost seem like it. Can you feel or sense when the other twin is hurt or in danger? No, we can’t. I heard of other twins having this ability but I guess our Wonder Twin powers have yet to fully activate.Reading this you’re probably beginning to realize that we are just like anyone else. We just so happen to look and act the same. I love my sister and I feel super blessed to have a lifelong best friend. Now the next time you see a set of twins, you’ll have some insight into a twin’s thoughts. But don’t count on guessing them.