Abby and Brittany Hensel are conjoined twins who have been beating the odds since they were born in 1990. When they were born, they made headlines for being one of the very few conjoined twins to survive the pregnancy and delivery processes.
Abby and Brittany are known as dicephalic parapagus twins, meaning they each have a head while their bodies are unified.
Out of the small number of conjoined twins in the world, only 11 percent are dicephalic parapagus twins like Brittany and Abby. The girls have two of each organ, two stomachs, two hearts, four lungs, but their lower half is shared, meaning they only have one reproductive system.
Each of the girls has control of one limb, one arm and one leg each, and have had to overcome many challenges with coordination in order to walk, swim, run, brush their hair, and drive.
Abby and Brittany have gained widespread attention in the media with their inspiring story, even having their own television series, Abby & Brittany, which aired in 2012.
The girls graduated from Bethel University with a degree in education and have since gotten jobs teaching.
“We are fourth- and fifth-grade math specialists, so we’ll have two classes of math. It’s part time, which is nice, so we’ll be kind of transitioning into the teaching world,” they said.
Their mother Patty has talked about how they had different career ambitions when they were children.
“When they were five, I remember one wanted to be a pilot and one wanted to be a dentist. That was short-lived,” she said.
Patty said that she thinks they made the right decision in terms of career.
“They’ve just always had a knack with kids, and kids have always been kind of drawn to them. Maybe [it] started by curiosity but then once their simple questions are answered they still are just drawn to Ab and Brit,” she said.
The principal who hired them said it was an easy decision.
“After our interview I showed the girls out the door. I came back in the room and before I even sat back down one of the people said, ‘Run after them, hire them, give them the job,’” he said.
The principal admitted that having conjoined twins on staff was “uncharted territory,” adding, “That’s why I called [human resources]… ‘Hello, H.R., what can we do? How does this all work?’”
“What we’ve done is we’ve sent out letters… and will reintroduce [the Hensels] again during open house,” he said.
“I think after anyone sits with these exceptional young women, I think any of their concerns will just vanish,” the principal said.
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