By Keyonna Wash and Daishenal Cross-Gibson Staff Writers
“Are you a twin?”
For some doubles, this is the most annoying and redundant question that can be asked. Some sets become upset when people point out that they are twins.
Sophomores Breanna and Britney King say “that stating something so clear is what makes [us] upset.”
When senior Iyonna Scott was asked about being a double —the same question that upset Breanna and Britney King — she handled it differently.
“I love the fact that I have someone in this world who looks like me,” Iyonna Scott said of sister Paris. “I think of my sister as my best friend who just so happens to look like me. So if I could make that wish, I wouldn’t change anything.
“No one has ever treated us as if we were different than anyone else,” Iyonna Scott said. “I love the feeling of people staring at us. I just love the fact that we are noticed as one and not as individuals.”
When asked if she liked being separated from her twin for long periods of times (months, year, etc.), Iyonna Scott said, “I don’t like to be separated. I also hate the fact that we go to different schools.”
Some sets want to be treated and seen as separate, not as one.
English teacher Christina Bell-Bowers and middle school teacher Cetaura Bell-Rodgers, who happen to be an identical set of twins, working in the same building.
“Our parents raised us as individuals,” Bell-Bowers said. “They only dressed us alike on holidays, because the extended family expected it. Our mother would tell us, ‘you’re just like everybody else,’ I guess to keep us humble because of the attention we received.”
“I love working with my sister, because when we share stories about our day, we know exactly who we are discussing,” Mrs. Bell-Rodgers said. “We work on different floors, so we really don’t see one another during the day. But on the first days of school, we know we have to ‘The Lecture’ with each one of our classes to keep the twin questions to the bare minimum.”
“It is very irritating to have students ask the same questions over and over again,” Bell-Bowers said. “The majority of the time, they want to have classroom discussions about us, or students are eager to say, ‘I saw your twin today.’”
And what about those who get mistaken as twins, who aren’t even related? Junior Addie Bonds gets mistaken for senior Diamond Ferguson’s twin.
“I tend to get angry when people tell me I look like her; only because I don’t know her,” Bonds said. “I honestly think I don’t look like her at all. I don’t think we hold any resemblance.”
“People keep saying [we could be twins],” Ferguson said. “We don’t look alike.”