It’s not unusual to see double in Hollywood these days. A celebrity baby boom has yielded a noticeable number of identical and fraternal twins.
In October, nearly 2-year-old Diddy daughters D’Lila Star and Jessie James appeared with him in L’Uomo Vogue. Dennis Quaid’s twins, Boone and Zoe, are the talk of celebrity baby blogs. Then, of course, there are Bradgelina’s creatively named wonder twins, Knox Leon and Vivienne Marcheline.
The newest wave of Tinseltown twins has renewed public interest in brothers and sisters who are wombmates. A National Geographic Channel special, “In the Womb: Identical Twins,” is set to air Dec. 21. And there are more twins to talk about than ever before in the U.S., according to recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control.
Twins made up 32.2 of 1,000 births in 2005, the most recent CDC stats available, which also reveal that number has grown 42 percent since 1990, when the rate was 22.68 per 1,000 births, leveling off beginning only in 2004.
“The growth in twins is attributable to in-vitro fertilization and other fertility-stimulating drugs women are taking as they continue to have babies at later and later ages,” said Dr. Louis Keith, head of the Chicago-based Center for the Study of Multiple Birth — himself an identical twin. “In addition, mothers over the age of 35 are more prone to having twins, though there is not a precise reason why.”
Some twenty- and thirtysomething twins say the boom in twin babies means they no longer are as marveled at as they were growing up, when it was much more of a phenomenon.
“You can’t go too many places without seeing twins,” Jennifer Durietz, 34, said. Jennifer and lookalike twin Jackie live in Vernon Hills together, where they still get some glances, but not nearly as many. “My mom didn’t take fertility drugs, but when we were about 10, you started seeing twins popping up left and right. It’s no longer a shocker.”
Still, Durietz and some other twins said, many misconceptions and myths about twin sibs persist despite the increasing number of twins in America. RedEye can handle the truth, so we talked to four sets of local twins about four hot topics. Their answers might cause you to do a double take.
Trading places
In 1998’s “Parent Trap,” Lindsay Lohan played the dual role of twin sisters who switch places to get their divorced parents back together.
But in the real world, trading places ain’t that easy or exciting, twins told us.
Elmhurst twins Jim and Nick Falco didn’t switch spots — with good reason, Jim said.
“We’ve had teachers who thought we were the same person, but it wouldn’t have benefited us both to go to each other’s classes,” Jim Falco, 38, said. “My brother was better in school than I was, so it wouldn’t have been a good move.”
Not such a good move after school, either.
“I was into sports and [Jim] wasn’t,” Nick said of his brother. “A switch wouldn’t have worked.”
Erika and Monika Simmons, who hail from South Shore, found the notion of twins trading places outright insulting.
“What would we want to do that for?” Erika, 35, asked. “This isn’t a whole different you, like some kind of clone. This is an individual that doesn’t want to fulfill your agenda, and why would I want to carry out hers?”
Living together forever
The four sets of twins we interviewed bristled at what they called a misconception that twin siblings cannot live apart; yet three of the four sets currently live together.
What’s up with that?
It’s cool to live with your twin sib, but only to a point, according to Alisha and Telisha Maholmes, 28-year-old sisters who until recently shared an apartment in Roseland. The duo lived together for six years, but are splitting up now that Alisha is married and moving upstairs with her new husband. Telisha plans to find another home, likely in the Southwest Suburbs, she said.
“I will miss her, but I want to be on my own,” Telisha Maholmes said.
Alisha said it’s more bittersweet for her.
“It’s going to be an adjustment because we have some mutual friends, but we do have separate groups we hang out with,” she said. “I don’t really see her except in the house.”
Jennifer and Jackie Durietz, on the other hand, say they enjoy living together.
Both plan to remain roommates at least until one of them gets married, Jennifer said.
Jackie took it a step further.
“I’d love to have a house where me and my husband and my sister could live together,” Jackie said, adding that a neighborly situation also would work.
But the Falco brothers said they appreciate having distance between them, even if it’s only a few blocks.
“We both have families, so we don’t see each other as often even though we live close by,” Nick Falco said. “But as you grow up and become individuals, you find the right time to go out on your own.”
Dressing alike
Looking at hip-hop babies D’Lila Star and Jessie James in matching bow ties in L’Uomo Vogue might make you say “awwww,” but the subject of making the same fashion statement drew mixed responses from RedEye’s twin interviewees.
On the pro side, twins Erika and Monika Simmons often don matching handmade crocheted clothing, but it’s more a matter of advertising than twin taste, they said.
The Simmons sisters co-own a business called Double Stitch, for which they crochet clothing and sell it to local boutiques, and recently co-authored a book of patterns called “Double Stitch: Designs for the Crochet Fashionista.”
On the con side, Alisha Maholmes said she doesn’t dress like her twin sister, Telisha, unless it’s a special occasion.
“Our parents dressed us similarly when we were kids, but we don’t do that anymore,” Alisha said. Her sister, however, said she wouldn’t mind matching more.
“We were dressed alike on Sunday,” Telisha said of a family gathering last month. “We may buy the same thing, but usually don’t wear it on the same day. I’d like to do it more, but Alisha doesn’t care for it. She doesn’t like the attention.”
Don’t ask, we won’t tell
What’s the most annoying aspect of being a twin? The pairs RedEye talked to held varying opinions, but one subject drew ire across the board.
Do not — we repeat: do not — ask if they can feel it when the other one is in pain. That is, unless you want to feel some of your own.
“That is so stupid,” Erika Simmons said. “Where does that even come from?”
The second-dumbest comment or question, mentioned by all four sets, is to guess aloud how you can tell them apart.
“I hate when people ask if we’re twins and then step back, saying stuff like, ‘Oh, I see … you have a different nose,’ ” Jackie Durietz said. “I didn’t ask for all that.”
The same goes for questioning whether the twins are different in any way at all, Telisha Maholmes said.
“People think we like the same boys, have the same friends … but we don’t,” she said. “We’re just like any two sisters. We might do similar things, but we are, most importantly, individuals.”
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TWIN TERMINOLOGY
Fraternal twins, the most common kind, occur when two separate eggs are fertilized by two different sperm. Genetically, they’re no more alike than any other siblings.
Identical twins occur when a single fertilized egg splits and develops into two fetuses. Genetically, the two babies are identical. They’ll be the same sex and look exactly alike.
FROM: MAYOCLINIC.COM
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kkyles@tribune.com
