We’re as identical as fraternal twins can be…

That was our line every time someone asked my sister Siobhan and I if we were identical twins.

You would think the debate would end there. I mean, we're twins, we should know right?

Wrong.

It didn’t matter what we said, people fought it and didn’t believe it…

Turns out, after 38 years they were right… we were wrong!

I’m sure you must be thinking, “ What do you mean you were wrong?How can something like that suddenly change?”

Buckle up and keep reading, this story will not disappoint!

What we’ve always known

For almost 39 years we’ve lived as Fraternal twins because that’s what we’ve always known.

Two sacs, two placentas, our mom was on fertility meds and that’s all we had to go on. Back in the 80’s there wasn’t anyone swabbing for DNA so that’s as much confirmation as anyone was going to get.

It made sense…until it didn’t.

Our whole life we were asked the same question: “are you identical twins?” and we always gave them our famous line “we’re as identical as fraternal twins can be” but it never seemed to appease anyone’s curiosity.

People would FIGHT with my mom when we were babies. They refused to accept that we were fraternal.

As years passed, we never gave it a single thought. Never once questioned our fraternal twin status.

BUT, then Siobhan had her daughter.

As Jazmin got older, we started to joke that Siobhan was raising my daughter. She loves crafts, she wants to colour code her closet… she went to the dollar store to buy folders to alphabetize her art… as they left the store Jazmin announced “I’m my aunt's daughter” and smiled.

She is 6 years old.

Comparing pictures of Jazmin to when we were kids, she is my spitting image! Not Siobhan’s.

I don’t mean you can see a clear relation, I mean a spitting image.

We all did a hair sensitivity test and when the results came back, Jazmin had a TON of sensitivities in common with… ME!

I could go on with many more examples but for the sake of keeping the blog to a standard size and not a memoir I will leave you with those.

One day I said out loud “What if we are identical?!?!”

Then, because we all know technology listens to us, I started seeing TikTok videos of fraternal twins doing 23andMe and finding out they were identical.

OMG WE HAVE TO FIND OUT!

I already had a profile with 23andMe so I ordered one for Siobhan immediately.

She submitted the test and we waited patiently.

VERY PATIENTLY.

On May 30th 2025 (while I was away in Vegas) the results came in.

We wanted to open the results together so we hopped on a Zoom call.

Logged in and pressed “DNA relatives”...

IDENTICAL TWINS.

Not 96%.

Not 99.7%.

100% IDENTICAL TWINS.

(Link to our actual reaction)

It changed everything and nothing at the same time.

We are still just as close as before. Our relationship hasn’t changed. Our dynamic hasn’t changed. But our perspective has.

What this experience has taught us

Lesson 1: Questioning what you’ve always known is part of growth

Just because something has been true for a long time doesn’t mean it still is or ever was. It's ok to re-evaluate beliefs, routines, or assumptions you've accepted without question.

That doesn’t mean you were naive or wrong; it means you're open to growth.

The ability to pause and ask, “What if I’ve been doing this wrong?” or “What if this isn’t true?” is a powerful skill, not a weakness.

Questioning isn’t about creating conflict. It’s about creating clarity.

Lesson 2: Belief is not the same as truth

We often believe things because we’ve heard them enough, someone we trust told us, or they’ve never been challenged.

But belief and truth are not interchangeable.

Believing something doesn’t automatically make it accurate. At the same time, realizing something you believed isn't true doesn’t make you foolish, it means you were working with the information you had.

When better information becomes available, the right thing to do is to update, not defend.

Lesson 3: Curiosity and openness lead to better understanding

Being open doesn’t mean being dramatic or reactive, it means being willing to explore.

Sometimes that starts with a gut feeling or a question that won’t go away.

Don’t ignore that feeling! It’s ok to look for proof or evidence that challenges what you’ve always known. That process doesn’t break things apart, it helps you see them more clearly.

Staying curious, even when you're uncomfortable, allows growth to happen.

Lesson 4: You can expand your perspective without erasing your past

Learning something new doesn’t mean everything that came before it was wrong. It means your understanding just got deeper.

Updating your story or your perspective doesn’t invalidate who you were, it adds dimension to who you are now.

Change can feel unsettling, but it doesn’t have to change your relationships, your values, or your identity. Sometimes it changes everything and nothing at the same time, and that’s okay.

TL;DR

Some stories shift the way you see everything. Others just sharpen the focus. This one did both.

What you knew yesterday does not define who you are tomorrow. You’re allowed to update your story when you learn something new. Learning something new can feel unsettling and uncomfortable but it can also feel exciting. Being open to new information allows for growth.

Stay curious on purpose, and never underestimate the value of asking, “What else might be true?”

What happens when you question what you’ve always known - Twin edition