Twinsters

We watched this really wonderful documentary on netflix called Twinsters - it's about this American girl who was adopted from Korea as a baby.  She grew up in New Jersey, but now lives in LA and is an actress.  She did a webseries, and some guy in France watched it and thought the girl in the video was his friend, Anaïs,  He shares it with her on Facebook.  Anaïs messages the American (Sam) with her birthday and birth city.  Sam's is the same.

It's through the miracle of social media that these two find each other, despite Sam growing up in New Jersey and Anaïs growing up in France (then college in London), and it's through social media that they build their relationship - they skype right away (first talk=3 hours) they WhatsApp constantly (they even nickname each other "pop" - that little sound of a new message coming in).

It's amazing to me how utterly compatible they are right from the beginning.  It's Sam, the outgoing LA actress and budding filmmaker who has the instinct to record their initial meeting and ultimately make the documentary, so you see the amazing progression of this incredible story, yes, but more importantly you see the beautiful and immediate connection these two very sweet, loving girls form.  And, not only do the two girls fall instantly into sisterhood, but their adopted families immediately love and accept the other girl and her parents.  I just couldn't help but think, if I found my identical twin on the opposite side of the planet, she'd probably hate me and I'd think she was a jerk, and no way would our families get along.  Maybe that's just me because I'm a cynical, cold-hearted person?

The two girls eventually go to Korea together and attempt to find their birth mother.  They do find the women who fostered them for a few weeks before they were adopted out, which is so sweet because Anaïs tearfully says that she never really felt that her life began until she was arrived in France with her adopted parents - but was so overwhelmed to find that she really was loved and cared for as a baby in Korea, and that the woman who fostered her remembered her still.

Although the doc doesn't really get into the politics of international adoption, there's a lot of food for thought there.  It does get a bit into twin studies, as these two are a goldmine as identical twins who were raised apart.  To tell the truth, I'm real "Nurture" person when it comes to the whole Nature v. Nurture development debate but this film really blew apart some of my ideas.

Anyway, if you're looking for something to watch, it's utterly charming and has really given me a lot to think about lately.  As someone who really aches to be physically closer to her sister, I hope those two twins find an opportunity to live closer to each other soon.