One Has Dark Skin, One Light —and They're Twins

Kalani and Jarani Dean are twin girls, but you might not know it by looking at them. Kalani has light skin and blue eyes—inherited from Caucasian mom Whitney Meyer—while Jarani has darker skin and brown eyes, inherited from African-American dad Tomas Dean. The Illinois nine-month-olds are gaining attention after Meyer posted a picture of them to the Facebook page of local news station KHQA Monday; their story has since been picked up by outlets including People and Cosmopolitan.

As the BBC explains, a mixed-race couple expecting twins has about a one-in-500 chance that the babies will end up with different skin colors. Such cases are always fraternal twins, in which two eggs were fertilized by two sperm. Meyer says the girls are different in other ways, too—Kalani, for example, is already crawling while Jarani prefers to be held. "No one believes they're twins," Meyer tells Us. "I dress them identical and I can tell [people are] confused." (More twins stories.)