As the pair teases, pokes and prods each other it hits us that they haven’t grown up together.
Anais Bordier and Samantha Futerman have the same laugh. They wear their hair the same way and share a hatred of cooked carrots, a love of the same colour nail polish and the need to sleep 10 hours a day.
In a tale of serendipitous coincidences, the power of the internet and a whole lot of lucky two girls who didn’t know that they had an identical twin sister until less than two years ago have found each other.
Bordier, who grew up in Paris, is an aspiring fashion designer who was studying in London. On a Saturday in December 2012, while she was on a bus, a friend sent her a screen shot of a YouTube video featuring Futerman, who is an actress.
"I'm automatically thinking, 'Oh, who posted a video of me on YouTube?'” she said with a laugh. The resemblance was uncanny. When she got home, she looked again and realised it wasn't her but a girl who looked exactly like her who lived in the United States.
Bordier's investigative instincts kicked into overdrive. She learned Futerman's name and discovered they shared a birthday and were both adopted in South Korea.
"I learnt that she was actually born in the same port city in Korea." Bordier got up her nerve and decided to contact Futerman via Facebook, sending her a friend request and a message.
"It's pretty strange to get a message from ‘yourself’ on Facebook," she said. "It's a really weird experience."
It took her a few days to respond.
"I thought, 'Wow, this could actually be true,' " Futerman said.
The first time they talked on Skype, they were supposed to chat for 90 minutes but ended up talking for three hours – a conversation that proved to be life-changing.
"We were 25 at the time, and it's like that quarter-life crisis thing when you think it's all downhill," Futerman said. "I have to buy my health insurance. I'm getting kicked off my parents' (plan). There's nothing good any more, and then it teaches you that anything's possible."
For Bordier, who thought she was an only child, discovering she had a sister was amazing. But realising that she had a twin was "even crazier, because you have so much in common."
"You have a very strong bond that you can't actually explain, but we understand each other without even really talking," Bordier said. "I could see her body language. ... We understand each other right away."
Close encounters of the sister kind
A DNA test proved what they already knew. They were, in fact, twins. Now they planned to meet in person for the first time in London.
"The only way to explain it is being the most intense long-distance relationship and talking over months on social media and Skype," Futerman said.
But what seemed like a heady experience on the internet was a scary one in the flesh.
Bordier said she found herself at that first meeting needing to keep her distance, because it all felt "very strange," but at the same time wanting some proof that her identical twin sister was real.
"So I just poked her," she said, at which point they both laughed.
Their reunion, which they each chronicle in alternating chapters in the book, is also part of a documentary, which they are producing and hope to release next year.
The support they have received as their story has gotten national attention and the interest they have had from other adoptees and twins have motivated them to try to raise awareness and provide resources for international adoptions.
"It inspired us to become something bigger than just ourselves and to share our story for a reason," Futerman said.
She and Bordier have teamed up with Futerman's friend, fellow actress Jenna Ushkowitz, a Korean-American adoptee and cast member on Glee, to start a foundation called kindred. The foundation is focused on helping adoptees, both in the US and worldwide, with family reunions and any other issues they might encounter.
"It's such a joy to find your family," Bordier said. "I guess when you're adopted you're always looking for somebody that looks like you, that will understand you."
They have tried to reach out to their birth mother but reveal in the book that she has not been interested in connecting with them.
"If we've learned anything in this story, it's that things will happen as they should," Futerman said. "And if one day she wants to reach out to us, then we're here, and we're willing, and we're ready."
Love transcends all
While they still live halfway around the world from each other, Bordier in Paris and Futerman in Los Angeles, they are in contact via social media every day.
"Basically, I wake up to 20 text messages, 'What are you doing?' 'I'm on my way to work.' 'It's cold out,'” Futerman said. "They’re about arbitrary things that happen during the day. And it's constant."
Bordier says Futerman is always waking her up in the morning via text because of the time difference. She'll get messages like, "Wake up, you're late," she said.
"It's amazing to feel that someone is always awake somewhere in the world, and you feel protected," Bordier said.
They may have been torn apart as babies, but they say they are now forever bonded.
"We're not worried about being separated again," Futerman said.
The 26-year-old sisters have recently written a book titled Separated @ Birth: A True Love Story of Twin Sisters Reunited, which chronicles their thoroughly modern reunion.
