Identical twins can be hard to tell apart, even when they are all grown up and have unique personalities, but for seniors Emily and Haley Stevens, people have been mistaking them for each other since birth.

“When we were newborns, our mom had to tie a ribbon around Emily’s ankle because she couldn’t tell us apart. The ribbon was [important] until people could see differences in our personalities. Plus, our mom would dress us in different colors; Emily was always blue and I was always pink,” Haley said.

In addition to the challenge of trying to tell the two apart, there were also challenges with raising two children at the same time, according to Emily.

“Our dad travels a lot for work, so when we were born, it was extremely hard for our mom to take care of two babies herself,” Emily said. “She literally had her hands full with a baby in each arm.”

Now that the twins are older and have unique personalities and interests, they believe it is easier for people to tell them apart. However, they say that there are still members of their own family that find it hard to tell the difference between them.

“Our aunts and uncles still can’t even tell Emily and I apart. Every time we go to a family party, I get called Emily so much. Our friends can actually tell us apart better than most of our family,” Haley said. “I don’t know what it is, but after almost 18 years, they still can’t tell us apart.”