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February 18, 2018 2:43 PM   Subscribe

Abby and Brittany Hensel are dicephalic parapagus twins from Minnesota with separate heads and joined bodies (previously). After as normal a childhood as possible, they graduated from college in 2012 and became part-time teachers. (via) posted by Johnny Wallflower (29 comments total) 28 users marked this as a favorite
 
They have such sweet faces and voices; I'm not surprised kids love them. I suspect they're not being paid as much as they're worth, but then that's true of just about every teacher.
posted by Countess Elena at 3:16 PM on February 18, 2018 [10 favorites]


I'm really happy to see this! They are only a couple of years younger than I am, and I first heard about them when I was a kid, so I wonder about how they're doing on and off.

It's really interesting how they speak - usually with two clearly individual voices, and then occasionally totally in tandem right down to the intonation.
posted by showbiz_liz at 3:19 PM on February 18, 2018 [6 favorites]


I like the way they crack each other up occasionally.
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:22 PM on February 18, 2018 [3 favorites]


I once found myself standing next to Abby and Brittany at a local distillery. The bartender definitely treated them as two customers, asked whose turn it was to cover the tab, etc.

(It was trivia + pet adoption fundraiser night so apparently they like some combination of miscellany, dogs, and/or gin)
posted by Flannery Culp at 3:26 PM on February 18, 2018 [27 favorites]


It always drove me nuts when they were being covered by the news as children and you'd hear people acting totally confused over whether they were two people, or referring to them as 'a two-headed girl.' More recent articles about them seem to take it as a given that they're separate individuals, though, which is a nice indicator of progress.
posted by showbiz_liz at 3:37 PM on February 18, 2018 [9 favorites]


It's really interesting how they speak - usually with two clearly individual voices, and then occasionally totally in tandem right down to the intonation.

Minnesota (Twice As) Nice
posted by hal9k at 4:07 PM on February 18, 2018 [7 favorites]


MetaFilter: some combination of miscellany, dogs, and/or gin
posted by halation at 4:15 PM on February 18, 2018 [48 favorites]


Last time I can recall hearing about them was when they learned to drive, so that must have been 10-11 years ago. Glad things have turned out okay for them as adults. They escaped being over-exploited by modern "reality" television for the most part; a few more years along and things might have gone quite differently.
posted by briank at 4:47 PM on February 18, 2018 [2 favorites]


The sisters’ speech patterns are charming, almost musical, with solos punctuated by perfectly nuanced unison passages. Of course their voices blend with perfect pitch and harmony as only those of siblings can.

It is a pleasure to see these delightful young women enjoying life and undertaking a wonderful career. Their students will be very fortunate to get a true two-fer!

Thank you so much for posting.
posted by kinnakeet at 5:33 PM on February 18, 2018 [4 favorites]


I really enjoyed the "student teaching" video!

Much as it is tempting for me to complain that the world is shitty and getting worse, when I really think about the treatment of difference, even as recently as 20 years ago, we have come far. I'm happy that Abby and Brittany are as well adjusted amd content as they are.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 6:19 PM on February 18, 2018 [7 favorites]


Oh this is fantastic. They used to swim at the pool where I was a lifeguard. I was done with my lifeguarding days when they were about 5 and I'd see them around once in a while but it's really fun to see them grown and doing so well. They were wonderful and sweet when I knew them. Looks like that hasn't changed.
posted by Clinging to the Wreckage at 6:29 PM on February 18, 2018 [18 favorites]


I wasn't too clear from the linked video and article -- are they doing part-time work, and splitting a single part-time salary between the two of them, or are they doing full-time work, and each getting paid part-time as the splitting method? Either way is [uncertain rocking side to side] but the latter seems like it would be definitely unfair.

Regarding tandem speech, I guess what I found interesting was that they often did it with filler words ("um") in addition or even in stead of content words (the latter being what I'm used to in less synced-up overlapping speech).
posted by inconstant at 7:36 PM on February 18, 2018


It seemed like they were splitting one part time salary. I guess that makes sense, since the school is getting the same number of kids taught at one time as they would with one teacher, but it does seem cold-hearted. Especially since like their principal mentioned, they're now earning for their retirement. I wonder if they're going to be expected to support themselves like everyone else for the rest of their lives, I guess so, this is a pretty cold country.
posted by bleep at 7:41 PM on February 18, 2018 [5 favorites]


Maybe someone with better search-fu than mine can find more-recent information on them. Their Facebook and Instagram pages are way out of date, too.

I found their speech mannerisms charming. (squeee that Minnesota accent)
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:01 PM on February 18, 2018


It was interesting that the tandem speech seems (seems! documentaries are not exhaustive recordings of reality) to have increased between their 16th birthday in the 2011 doc and the present.
posted by figurant at 9:30 PM on February 18, 2018 [1 favorite]


I loved this! Thank you!
posted by greermahoney at 10:10 PM on February 18, 2018


My favourite female conjoined twins are Millie & Christine McKoy, who were born into slavery in 1851 but became world famous as "Millie-Christine, the Two-headed Nightingale". Read their extraordinary story in the yellow box here.

(Daisy & Elizabeth Hilton were pretty damned interesting too.)
posted by Paul Slade at 12:19 AM on February 19, 2018 [2 favorites]


I'm another who found their speech fascinating. Their chiming seems to occur when they're both in agreement, and I suspect a lot of it is actually an ability to quickly pick up on the other twin's speech. The funny thing is that the other twin often makes way for them, so it's quite a sophisticated system. When they're in disagreement the chiming disappears and it's quite noticeable.

I wonder if they play board games and things like that, and if their familiarity makes strategising harder?

Also, regarding their salary: it looks to me as if they can do more than a single teacher's job when it comes to marking or tutoring, even if they can't quite do two teachers's jobs (by, e.g., being in two rooms at once). That really ought to be reflected in their pay.
posted by Joe in Australia at 12:32 AM on February 19, 2018 [3 favorites]


I was reading the thread back from 2002 linked here- Metafilter really was a different place back then!

One person commented, "they'll never be able to find a job or get married."

Already proven wrong on one account! Not only do they have a job, but looks like they are great at it and accepted with no issues.

Regarding marriage/relationships, i have no doubt they can both manage those, however they choose to, and that there will be/are people to choose from.

In one of the videos they state with confidence at 16 that "they will be moms". <
posted by bearette at 5:51 AM on February 19, 2018 [2 favorites]


They have two stomachs, spines, hearts and brains, and the wiki page says they usually eat separate meals- surely together they need to eat more than one person. Another reason why splitting a salary doesn't really seem fair to me.
posted by bearette at 5:59 AM on February 19, 2018 [6 favorites]


IMO, discussions about the splitting of a salary really reveal the internal inconsistencies and cruelties of capital. Might be just me, though.
posted by lilies.lilies at 6:28 AM on February 19, 2018 [10 favorites]


I gotta say I really love the production style on these particular videos. some of the other videos about them have this very somber tone which is, well first off incongruent with the fact that they're clearly thriving, and also kind of exoticising I guess.
posted by bracems at 9:32 AM on February 19, 2018


As a substitute teacher, all I could think about was the obvious advantage of having the ability to have one of them, say, typing on the computer getting something up on, like, the Smartboard, while the other can be dealing with discipline that inevitably happens when kids are waiting for something.
posted by RedEmma at 10:23 AM on February 19, 2018 [6 favorites]


That's true! Or one to engage with an individual student while the other makes observations and notes. A built-in teaching partner.
posted by Flannery Culp at 10:54 AM on February 19, 2018 [1 favorite]


They are so charming!

I love getting little updates about their lives every few years, and I am so beyond happy that they haven't gotten chewed up by the d-list reality TV machine.
posted by He Is Only The Imposter at 11:00 AM on February 19, 2018 [11 favorites]


Yeah, I also was struck that they seem to overlap their speech more than they did in earlier vids... maybe because they were so excited and happy and the line of questioning was more expected/focused than in some of the earlier videos?

I also thought that in a lot of ways they're every teacher's dream--one mind to always watch the students while the other mind is working on something else!
posted by TwoStride at 1:49 PM on February 19, 2018 [1 favorite]


I saw them once. I was at the Mall of America with my daughters, and my daughters needed to use the restroom. They went in while I waited for them outside, and while they were in the bathroom, the twins came out of a nearby door and went into the restroom, wearing what appeared to be a prom dress. When my daughters came out, I asked them whether they had seen anything noteworthy, but they said no.
posted by Tool of the Conspiracy at 6:49 PM on February 19, 2018 [1 favorite]


I was driving behind them once - their silhouette was quite recognizable. So glad they're doing well!
posted by look busy at 8:08 AM on February 20, 2018


I think I saw them in NYC at Carnegie Hall after the Arlo Guthrie "Alice's Restaurant" show a couple years ago. They were just chatting between themselves walking down 57th Street, just like any other people leaving the hall.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 6:37 PM on February 22, 2018


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