Rectifying all of those ancient myths that come with being a twin

We’re not psychic

Growing up my twin sister and I were always asked “so can you two read each others minds?” This is one of the biggest general misconceptions of being a twin – we definitely do not have psychic powers. We don’t possess special abilities just because we are genetically identical and share the same genes.

We are individuals, not the same person

Often twins are also subjected to people believing that because they look alike no one can tell them apart. Identical twins with extremely similar attributes can still have very subtle differences. It’s all about getting to know twins as individuals and not just as a package deal. There’s nothing worse than people believing that physical resemblance suggests that there is no difference between twins. We have separate identity and individuality, it’s just about distinguishing carefully between the two.

…But we aren’t complete ‘opposites’

“Twins are opposites” is a phrase that twins can relate to growing up, as people would assume that they have opposing character traits. It is a widespread common falsehood that has no weight or bearing because it is not true that twins possess opposite character traits! In fact, twins often share similar characteristics because often they have grown up learning from each other and adopting similar psychological behaviour patterns. This could be anything from both learning to be quiet or perhaps loud to get attention.

The tallest twin isn’t necessarily the oldest

Fraternal twins often hear that because one twin may be taller than the other, this means that they are older. For some reason, it has been under assumption that height is a factor in being older or younger than the twin.

We don’t all have the same interests

People also often believe that twins like and share the same interests in everything. If you’re a twin have you ever heard someone say, “you’re a twin, so you must both like everything”. I have. This is a generalisation that twins enjoy the same hobbies just because they look alike. This couldn’t be further away from the truth. Going from personal experience, my twin and I certainly do not enjoy everything together. Whilst I enjoy dancing on a Friday afternoon, my twin loves to horse ride.

Competition between twins is no different than rivalry between singleton siblings

Even more so than singleton siblings, twins are under constant comparison from the world to try and compete for top dog status. This kind of competitive behaviour happens with twins and siblings all of the time growing up.

There’s not a good twin and bad twin in every pair

It’s a ancient myth that people believe that one twin is good and the other is bad. Twins act in a very similar way to how siblings behave, there is not an extreme behaviour trait that one twin possesses and the other does not. Setting up a dichotomy between twins can cause nothing but trouble. If one a twin is labelled good or bad growing up then sometimes this can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.