Anais Bordier and Samantha Futerman are identical twins. Neither woman knew she had an identical twin sister until less than two years ago via Facebook. That's where the power of the Internet, a lot of luck and a series of "what ifs" enter the picture
Anais Bordier and Samantha Futerman are identical twins, They wear their hair the same way and have since they were babies. They share a hatred of cooked carrots, love of the same color nail polish and the need to sleep 10 hours a day. Neither woman knew she had an identical twin sister until less than two years ago via Facebook. That's where the power of the Internet, a lot of luck and a series of "what ifs" enter the picture
Bordier, who grew up in Paris, is an aspiring fashion designer who was studying in London. On a Saturday in December 2012, while she was on a bus, a friend sent her a screen shot of a YouTube video featuring Futerman, who is an actress.
"I'm automatically thinking, 'Oh, who posted a video of me on YouTube?' " she said with a laugh. The resemblance was uncanny. When she got home, she looked again and realized it wasn't her but a girl who looked exactly like her who lived in the United States.
She looked for credits on the video to find the woman's name but couldn't find anything, so she dropped the matter.
That was until the same friend who sent the screen shot said he saw the girl from the video in a movie trailer, also on YouTube, about a month later.
Bordier's investigative instincts kicked into overdrive. She learned Futerman's name and discovered they shared a birthday and were both adopted in South Korea. "I stalk her a little bit more, learn that she was actually born in the same port city in Korea, and yes, started looking through all her pictures."
She got up her nerve and decided to contact Futerman via Facebook, sending her a friend request and a message.
Futerman, who was raised in Verona, New Jersey, and who has two brothers (her parents' biological sons) and a half-brother from her father's previous marriage, at first didn't know what to make of Bordier's friend request and message.
"It's pretty strange to get a message from yourself on Facebook," she said. "It's a really weird experience."
For Bordier, an only child, discovering she had a sister was amazing, but realizing that she had a twin was "even crazier, because you have so much in common."
A DNA test proved what they already knew that they were, in fact, twins and now they planned to meet in person for the first time in London.