*Kalani and Jarani, the rare black and white biological twin sisters from Quincy, Illinois, celebrated their first birthday on Sunday at a princess-themed party with cake toppers matching their skin tones.
“I wanted the cake to resemble each [of the girls],” their mom, Whitney Meyer, explains to People.com. “So the baker put a lighter skin-toned princess cake topper with blue eyes for Kalani and a princess with a darker skin tone to resemble Jarani.”
Meyer says not only did the twins love the cake, but guests thought it was “adorable.”
“Everyone that came was snapping pictures,” she says. “I just really wanted to let people know that there is nothing but love in this family.”
Meyer and her boyfriend, Tomas Dean, also have an 8-year-old son, Talan, who sticks up for his baby sisters.
“We were at the doctor’s office, and the doctor said, ‘Oh, they’re twins? One is darker…’ And [Talan] goes, ‘Well we don’t worry about color in our family!’ ” says Meyer.
Dr. Nancy L. Segal, psychology professor and director of the Twin Studies Center at California State University, says their different skin colors is “extraordinary.”
“We don’t know how often it happens because not all cases come to our attention,” Segal told PEOPLE in January. “I imagine it’s going to happen more frequently now that we have more mixed marriages.”
She adds: “It could be one child inherits certain genes from both parents and the other child inherits sets of genes from the other parent. And that explains the different skin tones. It’s just like how ordinary fraternal twins can look completely different from each other. They just inherit different sets of genes-one child gets the lighter ones, the other’s darker.
“The fact that these twins are biracial makes this a very extraordinary case.”
We Publish News 24/7. Don’t Miss A Story. Click HERE to SUBSCRIBE to Our Newsletter Now!
