Whenever we tell someone that we are mirror image twins, they always seem a little taken aback, "Huh?! What does that mean??". So many people have never heard of this type of twin before.
They say that 25% of all identical twins are mirror image twins. What does that mean? Exactly what it says, there are features about us that are opposite of one another, or that mirror each other.
There are different things that can be mirrored in mirror twins, such as a cowlick, a birthmark, freckles or moles, and sometimes even organs can be mirrored. Two of the more obvious ways; however, are the part in our hair and handedness, which is true for us, our hair parts opposite sides and Mindy is right-handed while I am left. For many years, these were the only two things that we new of that made us mirror image and to us, that wasn't much of a big deal.
So we've never really thought much about being mirror twins, until discovering things that we didn't know about each other through conversation, for instance, I have an astigmatism in my left eye and she has one in her right eye.
We see the same chiropractor who did both of our x-rays. I was at an appointment with Mindy one day and while the doctor was reviewing her x-rays, I said, "Hey, if you're sciencey and want to have some fun, you should look at both of our x-rays side by side some time because we're mirror twins, ya know!"! He said, "Really!?"! We both said "Yeah! We don't care, you can compare our files!".
He didn't waste any time and immediately pulled up my x-rays to view them next to Mindy's. While we were standing there behind him intently looking at the incredible mirrored spinal x-rays, he turned around a little excited to say something to us, but instead said, "Oh my gosh! You guys are standing the same exact way BUT opposite, this is so weird, you're freaking me out, I gotta go!" and then he left the room. Mindy and I looked at each other in disbelief. We didn't even realize that we were standing the same way, we were so enthralled with the x-rays before us!! Although the curving of our spines may be minor, we found it to be quite incredible that we were mirrored right down to our bones!! It was a very exciting and funny moment.
It's pretty interesting to be a twin and even more to be mirrored and discover all the ways you are opposite of one another.
If you're a mirror twin, please share in the comments how you and your twin mirror each other. We'd love to hear from you!!
Here are our x-rays, me on the left and Mindy on the right.
