Recognizing Other Twins

Back  in 2010 for the Soccer World Cup in
South Africa. Portugal was playing against Spain.
Photography Credit: Natalina Alves

Once in a while we seem to run into this myth where we as twins are expected to know the difference between other twins, like a twin sixth sense.
(In this case we are talking about identical twins.) The train of thought here is something along the lines of: “you’re one of them - you must know.”

Well slap me a chicken and tell me the truth…


We're sitting in the same boat trying to figure it out.When we do in fact meet other twins we can definitely understand, that most people you meet won't have a cooking clue which one you are for at least the first 8 times you meet. We definitely understand the little giggle you have when they've called you the wrong name...... again.

But putting all our TwinningIt pride away and looking honesty in the face, we turn out being baffled too.

One of the biggest challenges is having to fight the feeling of guilt like we should know who is who the moment we meet them after they have identified themselves with their name. We sit through this excruciating phase of having no idea who we're talking to; is it Kate? is it Sally? ; Albert? or Rodger?

Now you might come back to the thought "You're a twin; you understand so that should help you." well... the only benefit of having your own twin in this situation is knowing they’re thinking the exact same thing and later that evening you’ll probably regroup and try to figure out the differences together.

Now don't go thinking that if twins can't figure it out, you won't be able to either. Find some faith and know that you will. Most often than not people surprise themselves at how fast they have caught on.

Alright, so let us insert our tricks that have helped us along the way. We follow the advice we normally seem to give to others when asking about the two of us:

The first thing we  probably look at is the face; because looking at height will only get you so far, (especially if you meet them again and they’re by themselves.) Notice if there are any prominent facial features that could be different, if not look for beauty spots or freckles that only the one has.
Next try looking at the hair; are they the same colour? different cuts? is one of them balding?
These are areas we encourage people to look at when they are trying to tell the two of us apart due to us colouring our hair differently.

These are what we call ‘The Short Term Help.’ It helps others to be able to tell the difference in a fast and effective way without anyone feeling foolish. We hope this post has brought you some fun and clarity. Stay tuned for next week.