I
s it just me or are online
influencers doubling in
number? No surprise, perhaps,
given the rise of “twinfluencers”- identical twin influencers
flooding social media. Flocking
largely to Instagram and YouTube,
they often play up to their sameness
for the audience’s amusement:
dancing and singing in sync, trying
two different make-up looks at once.
“Twins are fascinating, I do get it,”
says Niki Albon, a 27-year-old from
Canvey Island, Essex, who runs two
YouTube channels with his twin,
Sammy. “Two humans who look and
think the same; it’s interesting.”
In 2017, nearly 11,000 sets of twins
were born in the UK – around 1.5 per
cent of births. The chance of having
identical twins is the same for all
women, around one in 250, as it does
not run in families.
The Albon brothers do
differentiate themselves with subtly
different styles and haircuts, but
their resemblance is so striking they
have 200,000 subscribers on
YouTube, which makes it popular
enough to run the channel as a
full-time job, and their prominence
has led to presenting slots on Radio 1.
“Psychologically, people like to see
mirrors of stuff,” says Nico Cary, of
Influentially, an influencer
management firm.
This is nothing new. Humans have
been fascinated by twins since
Romulus and Remus. Pop culture has
always had an appetite for seeing
double: Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen
were successful in the Nineties, and
run fashion label The Row today,
while Jedward are still remembered
a decade after The X Factor.
Twinfluencers are now in on the
No, you’re not seeing double – social media is
flooded with identical siblings,and they’re
making a fortune, finds Helen Chandler-Wilde
Behind the
rise of the
‘twinfluencer’
helps them be distinctive in an
increasingly saturated market. “It’s a
niche, and people are running out of
niches,” says Nico. Niki and Sammy
have sought to stand out by making a
second channel centring on Korean
pop music. “Everyone has their USP
and ours is that we’re twins that like
K-pop,” Niki says.
Having a twin around also helps
influencers to stay sane in a job that
could otherwise mean being alone all
day, talking to strangers online.
Without someone else there, it’s easy
to find yourself on a negative
mindset – a slave to an algorithm that
doesn’t care about you,” says Sammy.
Ayse and Zeliha agree. “It’s nice
not doing it on your own,” says Ayse.
The pair “love being twins” and
claim to never get sick of each other,
despite living and working together.
And they are not just twinfluencers,
but twin twinfluencers. They have
17-year-old identical sisters, Ceylan
and Ceyda, who sometimes make
appearances in their videos. This
double mirror image is difficult to
take in visually, especially when you
know the odds of this is 1 in 52,000.
A double dose of twins has also
proved popular for Victoria Morrell’s
Instagram @mama_and_the_peas,
where she posts about her five sons,
who include two sets of identical
twins. The pairs, aged six and one,
are usually dressed similarly, if not
exactly the same, with her three-
year-old slotting in between.
“I think I’m more popular because
I’ve had the two sets of twins,” says
Morrell, 35, who is on a break from
her career as a solicitor. She says she
started the page to show that it is
possible to look after five children.
“My inbox goes crazy every
evening with people asking for
advice. It’s so hard to get out of the
house when you have twins,” says
Morrell, who looks after the children
while her accountant husband is at
work. “If you go out you’re like a
circus show. You’re ‘the one with the
twins’. Then if you’re doing well,
people step away because you’re
coping with twins and they’re not
coping with one.”
Companies are also more
enthusiastic: keen to get in on the
audience of followers she has built- twice. Clothing, buggy and
crockery brands send Morrell
products to try out, while out and
about, “people come up and take
pictures”, she says. “On a trip to
London this week, tourists would
come over and go crazy.”
And beyond those interested in the
optics alone, scientists want to know
more about how Morell has produced
such a phenomenon – so much so
that she and her husband have been
asked to donate eggs and sperm in
order to guide further research.
“I am fascinated,” she concedes of
her multiple-twin set-up. “I still can’t
believe it happened, myself.”
Double trouble:
twinfluencers have
found a gap in the
market for their
unique similarities.
The Albon brothers
(centre left, yellow
background) and
the Clark sisters
(bottom right)‘People
like to see
mirrors of
stuff – it’s
like
having a
GETTY IMAGES; STOCK FOOD wingman’
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act and, able to analyse the popularity
of their pages, cam tailor-make
content. “When we dress exactly the
same on our Instagram, it is much
more popular,” explains Ayse Clark, 24,
who runs a YouTube channel full-time
with sister Zeliha from their Norwich
home.
The pair are strikingly similar, even
for twins. They keep their dark brown
hair long, and combed into a centre
parting with no fringe. And then there
are the clothes – one of their videos, in
which they visit Primark, has been
viewed 165,000 times.
“We went shopping today and we
just bought everything the same,”
says Ayse. “We do have the same
sense of style.” They appear to have
similar taste in men, as well – each has
a boyfriend called Ben, both of whose
middle name is James. The four of
them live together, and recently
all holidayed in Malta.
It may all sound like overload,
but twins are a social media gold
mine, where duos’ natural
chemistry makes for
engaging viewing.
“It’s like having a
wingman,” explains Nico.
“Engagement is higher
because you get two
personalities.”
This is certainly true for Niki
and Sammy, who found that their
videos as a pair were more popular
than Niki’s initial solo attempts. Their
performance is so seamless it looks
scripted. “Having the same mind helps
as presenters because of the non-
verbal communication,” says Sammy,
something in which they are well
versed as, like many twins, they had
their own language as children.
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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 17partygoers were young and involved
in the fashion world, while the
birthday boy was a banker, the
suggestion was that they were an elite,
reckless crowd.
Sutton is angry that he and his
fellow passengers were portrayed as
Thatcher-era yuppies.
“We were demonised by the media.
It was our fault, they said,” he explains.
“My neighbour’s brother died at
Hillsborough, and we often talk about
it – the same year, only a few more
died, and they’re still fighting for
justice. But the Marchioness? Some
new regulations came about, but in
terms of real justice? Nothing.
“Fifty-one people died in central
London, it’s outrageous. There were
some rich people but most of us
weren’t wealthy at all. We were
young... I had clients turn me away as
if I was damaged goods by association
with that crowd.”
The attitude of the authorities was
criticised by the Marchioness Action
Group, set up by the victims’
families in the aftermath. Sutton
remembers the police suggesting
that Gillian and another friend,
Rachel (now his wife; he and Helen
split soon after the disaster) be the
ones to inform Garnham’s mother
that her son had died.
The lobby group did succeed in
affecting change: more training for
police, the introduction of four
lifeboat stations on the Thames in
2001, and new laws on being incharge of a vessel under the
influence. Allegations of
manslaughter against Henderson,
the Bowbelle’s skipper, and the ship’s
owners were brought but dismissed
for lack of evidence in 1992.
The dredger was sold to a
Portuguese company and sank off
Madeira seven years later. In 2008,
Sutton and two diving partners
visited the wreck to photograph it. “I
had a strange urge to,” he says. “WhenI saw it I felt angry and sad, but like
I was in control. I was distressed all
the way back on the plane, as if I’d
been beaten up. At the same time, it
was very satisfying – as if I had
achieved something against the
vision in my head.”
Sutton wasn’t aware of any
memorial ceremonies this week – a
fact he says that illustrates just how
little the survivors are looked after- but later this afternoon, a Eucharist
and Act of Memorial will take place
at Southwark Cathedral. Inside the
Gothic church, close to the accident
site, a permanent tribute to the 51
victims reads: “Many waters cannot
quench love.” Thirty years on, those
touched by the disaster will
remember that love today.
‘We were demonised
by the media. It was
our fault, they said.
It’s outrageous’
Moving on: Andrew Sutton visited the wreck of the Bowbelle, which sank off Madeira in 1999, in 2008 to photograph it (top)18 ***^ Tuesday 20 August 2019 The Daily Telegraph
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