Atypical typicals

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. Fred and George Weasley. The Minnesota baseball team.  What do these all have in common? Yeah, they’re twins- and Alice Meng ’21 is one of them.

Meng was born on April 22, 2003, at 7:30 p.m. Her younger sister, Nina, was born 30 minutes later. It was from this day on that Alice would spend the rest of her life with a duplicate of herself—or so you thought. Alice and Nina are fraternal twins: not identical, meaning rather than being exact duplicates of one another, they don’t look exactly alike. Despite their physical differences, people still tend to mix up the two, which is a pet peeve for Alice. “We’re fraternal twins, and we’re not supposed to look alike, but people always assume that [we look alike].” Nina recalls a recent instance when they switched seats for an entire period of class. “Señora [Sandhu] never noticed.”

Sometimes their appearances lead people to assume things. Alice tends to bear a quiet facade. “[People] get to know Nina better than me, so then they don’t think much about me, except that I’m quiet.” She admits that she is more of a “middle” person than a “main” person, meaning that she likes to be the one listening in on a conversation rather than initiating one. “People always think that Nina is the talkative twin [and that] Nina’s more upbeat [than I am].” They’re walking examples of that one saying — opposites attract.

The twins’ differences hardly get in the way of their relationship. “It can sometimes get annoying to see the same person so many times a day,” Nina said. It’s true. Not only do they see each other at home, they also have journalism, band, and Spanish together. Being together so often has its benefits. “You always have someone supporting you and who can relate to you in a way nobody else can,” Alice said. “You also have someone to talk to on dog walks.

Of course, it’s not as if the twins spend every waking moment together. Alice keeps some things to herself. Like any typical teenager, Alice is stressed out about homework, and the unforeseeable future. She’s looking forward to robotics. She jokes, “It’s like applied tech, I think.” A future goal for herself is becoming a pediatric doctor. She volunteers in the Pediatric ICU at the UIHC on a regular basis. “I want to work around kids more, because kids seem great.” Her greatest fears are spiders and bad grades. The one atypical thing about her might just be the fact that she’s a fraternal twin. “We are two very different people that just happened to be born at the same time,” Alice said. 

Twins or not, Alice loves her sister. They’re unique individuals who just happen to be best friends. “One of the things I like most about them is that despite of their differences, they are both very nice, intelligent, and beautiful [on the inside and out],” mutual friend Maggie Huang 21’ said. “They are both amazing individuals in their own way.”