Biracial twins, born with different complexions, become social media stars

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Wednesday, January 25, 2017
Bi-racial twins born with different complexions
These beautiful babies are now social media stars because of their skin colors.

QUINCY, Ill. -- Two gorgeous little tots are now social media stars for one very interesting reason.

Biracial twins Kalani and Jarani are inspiring a lot of people after emerging from the womb with two completely different complexions.

The 9-month-old twins were featured Wednesday on Good Morning America.

"They're my miracle girls," mom Whitney Meyer told ABC News. "It has nothing to do with their color. I lost a child and a year-and-a-half later, I gained twins. I just wanted to share it and it's been crazy ever since."

Meyer said she always dresses the girls the same - otherwise, people never believe they are twins.

Little Kalani has light skin and blue eyes, while her younger fraternal twin Jarani, born five minutes later, has brown skin and brown eyes.

"Never in a million years would I [have] imagined" having a daughter with blue eyes and a lighter complexion," dad Tomas Dean told ABC News.

Now the girls are taking social media by storm and getting lots of love and a caring embrace from people around the world.

But how do twins who are fraternal come out with two different complexions?

Dr. Angela Bianco of Mount Sinai Hospital says skin color is determined by multiple genes, but fraternal twins come from two separate eggs and two different sperm.

"By virtue of chance, one twin can inherit more DNA from a specific parent in contract to its co-twin, and that DNA can code or translate for things like skin color and eye color," Bianco said. "This is pretty rare occurrence to have two twins that look very different, but it certainly can happen with biracial couples, but it's really just a matter of chance."

While they look different now, mom and dad said their daughters still have distinct character traits.

"Kalani, she has more of a personality like her mother," Tomas Dean said. "Jay's more just set back and she's kind of like me."