Anaïs and Samantha were two 27-year-old women living very different lives. One was a French fashion design student residing in London; the other a tech-savvy California girl. Thanks to Samantha's love of YouTube, Anaïs' friends were able to make a discovery last year that changed both girls' lives forever. While viewing one of Samantha's many online videos, they thought it was pretty uncanny that the girl looked just like their good friend. A bit of research and stalking followed, but it didn't take long before Anaïs made the most amazing realization of her life: she and Samantha were identical twin sisters separated at birth and reunited by technology.
Through the power of social network sites -- mainly Facebook -- Anaïs found out both she and Samantha were born on November 19, 1987 and that Samantha had also been adopted at a young age. Can you imagine Samantha's shock when she received a Facebook friend request from a girl who was her spitting image?! Absolutely nuts.
The sisters set up a few Skype sessions and soon discovered that they were both born in Korea. Samantha had been adopted by a family from New Jersey and went on to study at Boston University before moving to Los Angeles to pursue acting and directing, whereas Anaïs is a fashion maven who was raised in Belgium and France. The two met up in May of last year and totally hit it off -- as only twins could, I guess. They're currently working on creating a feature-length film about their lives.
It's insane to think that if they had been alive 50 years ago -- jeez, 30 years ago -- they might never have found each other. They would have lived their entire lives never knowing that their carbon copy soul mate existed one plane trip away. Their unique story just makes me wonder how many missed opportunities existed prior to technology. We often condemn sites like Facebook and YouTube for stripping us of our privacy. Their story serves as the sweetest example of how social media can create amazing connections that make a true difference in the lives of its users.
Check out this video, which details their incredible journey:
See this video on The Stir by CafeMom.
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Image via YouTube