Colorful twin sisters — an unexpected phenomenon

Lucy and Maria Aylmer are twin sisters, but you can't tell by the look of it. Lucy has fair skin and straight red hair, while her sister has dark skin and dark curly hair. The girls were born in the British city of Gloucester. Their father, Vince, is white, and their mother, Donna, is half-Jamaican. "No one believes that we are twin sisters, because I am white and Maria is black," says Lucy. — Even when we dress the same, we still don't look like sisters, much less twins. At first, our new friends do not believe that we are twins, and even ask to see the birth certificates to prove it."

Believe it or not, these girls are twin sisters!

Here's a picture of them as children.

Lucy has light skin, and Maria has dark skin. They are very close, but no one believes that they are twins.

The probability of having bi-racial twins is about 1 in 500, so it's not surprising that the sisters lead people to confusion.

It seems that in childhood the resemblance was greater…

Family photo with Dad Vince, Mom Donna and all their siblings.

The 18-year-old sisters from Gloucester (UK) were born in January 1997.

Their mother was amazed when she first saw her babies. "It was a shock to her because parameters such as skin color are not determined by ultrasound results during pregnancy," says Lucy. — So she had no idea how different we'd be when we were born." When the midwife handed us over to her, she was speechless."

And this is a photo of my mother (in the center, in black) with all her already grown-up children!

The sisters study at different colleges. Lucy is studying art and design, and Maria is studying law and psychology.

Of her current life, Lucy says: "We're both grown up now. And although we still look very different, the bond between us has become much stronger. We are proud to be twin sisters to each other. Maria is very fond of telling her friends in college, she has a white-skinned sister. I'm proud to have a dark little sister, too."