Sienna Bernal and Sierra Bernal, both 23, from Tomball, Texas, look nothing alike, but they are identical twins.
They hold the Guinness World Record for the most unusual type of discordant twinning.
A large size or weight disparity between the two foetuses of a twin pregnancy is referred to as twin growth discordance.
Sierra weighs 44.4 kilos and is 5 feet 7 inches tall, while Sienna weighs 22.6 kilogrammes and stands 4 feet 4 inches tall.
Sienna is the first twin to be born with primordial dwarfism.
When Sienna was born, she was roughly six weeks behind her sister in development.
“‘They [the doctors] said ‘So, you’re having twins, but you need to quickly get over that because we need to talk about baby B’. So, I had to absorb that information really quickly and then just move straight on to her [Sienna] being so small” Chrissy Bernal, the mother, told Guinness World Records.
Doctors knew Sienna had Dandy-Walker Syndrome before she was born because tests revealed that a piece of her brain was missing. They had observed she was significantly smaller than her twin sister but had no idea why.
“Sienna stayed in the NICU for 108 days and then she went into the hospital a lot over the next several years of her life, off and on for three to six weeks at a time,” Chrissy explained.
The family did not discover Sienna’s dwarfism until she was six years old.
“They kept saying it was failure to thrive, which is just a generic term they use when they’re not sure what’s going on,” the mother recounted.
A visiting Belgian scientist assumed Sienna had dwarfism and ran her through certain tests to confirm it.
“There are fewer than 200 people in the world diagnosed with primordial dwarfism and Sienna’s type is one that’s unknown,” Chrissy said. “They’re so different even though they’re ‘identical’ twins,” she added. “They’re both really, ridiculously silly and they are both very funny in their own right. While Sierra can say things to be funny, Sienna will say things not even trying to be funny and that’s when you about die from laughing,” Joey Bernal, their stepfather, stated.
Sierra stated, “I can’t recall noticing differences. We were born in the situation that we’re in, so we didn’t know anything else until we got older. I don’t think differences became as apparent until we got older, and I started driving.”
She went on to say that she has been playing the “big sister” role rather than the “twin” position.
Like other twins, the sisters have an unshakable bond. They both lost their teeth at the same time and even slept in the same positions.
“Sometimes when we go out in public, people will think she’s my mom and not my twin because I’m so short,” Sienna joked. “When we go to bars, people think I’m eight even though I’m 23. It’s really funny.”
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