Experience: I found my identical twin on YouTube | Life and s...

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Experience: I found my identical twin on

YouTube
She sent me a picture of her adoption records. We had been born in the same clinic.
She wrote, Dude, were totally twins!
Anas Bordier
Friday 10 July 2015 13.59BST

Ive always known I was adopted. I was born in Busan, South Korea, but raised in
France by parents who look nothing like me, with blond hair and blue eyes. My
adoption records say I was born an only child to a very young, unmarried woman.
In December 2012 I was in London, studying fashion, when another student posted a
YouTube video of me on my Facebook page. But Ive never made a YouTube video in
my life. When I watched it, I realised it wasnt me at all, it was an American girl who
looked exactly like me.
I watched the video over and over again, looking for dierences, but we were
identical, except for her clothes and her accent. Her name wasnt on the video, so I
had no idea how to contact her.
A month later, I was on a bus in Hackney when a friend told me there was a new video
online of my doppelganger. I immediately watched it on my phone. It was a trailer for
a lm, so I looked up the cast and nally had her name: Samantha Futerman. I found
out she was also born in Korea and her birthday was 19 November 1987, the same as
mine. I was so shocked I had to get o the bus. I called my mum and she said the
words Id been afraid to even think: Do you think she might be your twin?
I spent a long time composing a message to Samantha, telling her to check out my
Facebook photos. When she wrote back, she sent a picture of her adoption records.
We had been born in the same clinic. Sam wrote, Dude, were totally twins! We
started exchanging photos and then had a conversation on Skype. I was so nervous.
We had the same mannerisms, the same laugh, even our hairstyle was similar. We
talked about everything and nothing for three hours. After that, every morning Id
check her Instagram feed to remind myself she was real.
Dr Nancy Segal, a specialist in twin studies at California State University, contacted us
when Sam started working on a documentary about us. She oered us DNA testing, so
we swabbed our cheeks together on Skype, and we agreed to meet.
Sam, her parents and two brothers came to meet me in London last May. I took my

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Experience: I found my identical twin on YouTube | Life and s...

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mum and some friends for support. I was incredibly nervous. When I rst saw Sam, I
was trying not to stare, but she just started laughing. I went over and awkwardly
poked her in the head I just wanted to make physical contact. I didnt know what to
do. I wasnt aware how small I was. Her feet looked tiny and I realised mine must be,
too, and suddenly I knew how I looked from behind.
We wanted to be by ourselves, so we went to have lunch, and on the way we kept
stopping to look at our reections in shop windows. It was like a parallel universe.
Were so similar: she reacts to things the same way I do. Were both awkward and
have the same strange sense of humour. She doesnt have to explain herself to me and
she understands me perfectly, too. That night, we had a Skype call with Dr Segal, who
gave us the DNA results. She said, You should hug, youre identical twins! So we
did. Around us, it was like somebody had won a football match. Everyone was
cheering.
I would like to know why we were separated, but we still have no idea. Sam had tried
to contact our birth mother before she knew about me, but the woman named on her
adoption papers said Sam had the wrong person. Im not worried about that, as I was
never anxious to nd my birth mother, and now I have Sam anyway. Sam lives in LA
and Im in France, so we meet when we can, spending special occasions together. We
have discovered a love of surng, so when I visit we often head to the beach. Our
parents have become great friends and all say they have a second daughter.
I had a very happy childhood and never felt anything was missing, but there was one
thing I wanted: to look like someone else in my family and to have that physical
connection to someone. But what could be better than an identical twin? Ill always
have her in my life now.

As told to Antonia Blyth.

Do you have an experience to share? Email experience@theguardian.com

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