Though many negative things can be said about social media and the impact it has had on us, it can also bring people together in unexpected ways. Such was the case for two teenagers who found each other through TikTok. One day, 19-year-old Ano’s friend sent her a video created by another teen on TikTok.
She thought Ano and the teenager in the video looked a lot alike. Later, the teenagers found out it was not a coincidence: They’re actually identical twins who were separated at birth.
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In 2021, a teenager named Amy shared a video on TikTok.
When Ano saw the video, she wanted to find a way to connect with the teenager who seemed to look just like her. She shared the video in a WhatsApp group to see if anyone could help, per the BBC. One person in the group happened to know Amy. Interestingly, Amy had seen Ano before.
Seven years prior, Amy was watching Georgia’s Got Talent on TV and noticed that a girl competing in the talent competition looked just like her. At the time, however, her mother told her that “everyone has a doppelganger,” according to the news outlet.
When they met for the first time, ‘it was like looking in a mirror.’
As they exchanged messages on social media, Amy and Ano realized they had a shocking number of things in common. In addition to sharing many common interests – things that could maybe be a mere coincidence – they also both have a genetic disorder called dysplasia, per the BBC.
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After some time, the teenagers decided to meet in real life. Seeing Ano for the first time “was like looking in a mirror,” Amy said. Once they saw each other in person, they knew they had to be twins – and they were right.
After they were born, Amy and Ano were adopted illegally.
Through some challenging conversations with their families, they learned more about what happened just after they were born. Both of their adoptive parents said they were told they could pay to adopt babies at a local hospital.
They said they were told the mother of the babies didn’t want them. Apparently, the adoptive parents didn’t even know that the girls were twins. Additionally, they said they didn’t realize the way in which they adopted their daughters was illegal, per the BBC.
Meanwhile, the twins’ birth mother was reportedly told her babies had died. Eventually, Amy and Ano were able to track down their birth mom and hear her side of the story. Their birth mom, Aza, said she went into a coma after giving birth. When she woke up, staff members at the hospital told her that her babies died shortly after birth.
Unfortunately, many other families in Georgia, a former Soviet republic, have had similar experiences. Journalist Tamuna Museridze learned that baby trafficking was “systemic” in the country from the 1950s to 2005.
“The scale is unimaginable,” the journalist told the BBC. “Up to 100,000 babies were stolen.” In 2006 and 2007, the country started cracking down on illegal adoptions through legislative changes, according to the news outlet.
