Love has no boundaries, no concept of race, religion or gender.
So when Amanda Wanklin first met Michael Biggs, it was love at first sight. As twins, Amanda knows that “it’s more important than what we want together”.
So they settled in Birmingham and were ready to start a family of their own. They don’t think that life will be so much more interesting after they become parents.
Starting a Family
In 2006, Amanda and Michael were ready to welcome the first two new members of their family: baby girls Millie Marcia Madge Biggs and Marcia Millie Madge Biggs.
And yet the story of Millie and her sister Marcia was one that would have a number of surprises. As time went by, their parents began to notice that one of twin’s skin was changing color.
The girls were cute and resembled one another. But it was like that during the first days of their lives only. As time passed by, the parents noticed how Millie’s skin started getting darker. They believed the same would happen to Marcia, but they were wrong. Instead, Marcia’s skin got lighter and lighter.
The parents soon realized their twin girls had different skin color from one another.
The genetic makeup of the two twins was different. Marcia took after her mom and Millie after her father.
It resulted from the varied genetic makeup of their parents, but is so uncommon that it’s believed to affect only one in a million twins.
Their mother calls the girls a ‘one-in-a-million’ miracle.
Now, while Amanda and Michael were simply happy to know the condition wouldn’t negatively impact Millie or Marcia’s health in anyway, other people were naturally confused when they saw them.
Of course, they didn’t care, but were a bit concerned about how others would react seeing them being of different race. They knew people can be judgmental, and didn’t want their daughters to get stared at while growing up.
For the most part, though, the parents are relieved that people in general are more curious than prejudiced, and Amanda and Michael couldn’t be prouder of their little girls.
Millie and Marcia both love to sing and dance, and say they’ve never personally experienced racism.
The twins have now blossomed into teenagers and still attend the same school together. When they were 11, they used the uniqueness of their condition to try to help tackle racism on an international scale, appearing in a campaign for National Geographic.
