Makai and Ellion Crane, who are 13 months old, are fraternal twins born to mixed-race parents in Vermont, US. Makai has dark skin, gorgeous thick curly black hair and dark brown eyes. Ellion, who was born almost bald now has light golden locks with white skin, and initially had grey eyes.
Their mother, Leaetta Harris, 29, is Caucasian and African-American, while their father, Lamba Crane, 35, was born in Gabon to an African mother and a Caucasian-American father.
“They definitely look like two different races of babies,” Leaetta said. “People always ask if they are twins and then are sʜᴏᴄᴋᴇᴅ and confused when we say ‘yes.’ Some extended family members have made joking comments asking if they really have the same dad, which they do.”
Leaetta claims she has never seen twins born to mixed-race parents that seem like separate races, and she feels their sons are one-of-a-kind.
“We believe our children are really unique,” she continued. We are ecstatic to have produced such different babies. We’ve only ever seen twins like these boys on the internet. However, the parent pairings in the two or three stories we read were not the same as ours. All other twins with varying skin tones are from either a full white or black parent, or a mixed parent that is half white and half black.”
The twins were ᴅɪᴄʜᴏʀɪᴏɴɪᴄ ᴅɪᴀᴍɴɪᴏᴛɪᴄ twins, meaning they shared the same ᴡᴏᴍʙ but had separate ᴘʟᴀᴄᴇᴛᴀs and sᴀᴄs. They were born via C-sᴇᴄᴛɪᴏɴ, Makai was the first, followed by Ellion four minutes later.
“They are two very distinct persons with their own personalities,” the mother of two said. Makai is more outgoing and emotional, whereas Ellion is more relaxed and self-sufficient. They are attempting to learn French. Makai is more muscular than Ellion, yet their heads are very different.”
When she first saw the twins, the stay-at-home mom and her partner, who also has a kid from a previous relationship, were astonished.
Leaetta said: “Twins do not run in either family and they were ᴄᴏɴᴄᴇɪᴠᴇᴅ naturally. We were surprised to see that one was way lighter than the other. We expected the babies to have the exact same skin colours as us since we are both mixed. Their dad had a moment of scepticism at first wondering how it was even possible. We thought that they were just light from being inside the ᴡᴏᴍʙ and that their skin would darken over time but Makai got darker than both of us and Ellion is still just as light.”
The twins have become popular on social media where Leaetta regularly posts their cute pictures on Instagram with a purpose of showing people that there are twins like them and that families come in many colours.