Have you ever referred to someone as your twin, even though you're not related? Best friends do it all the time. Calling someone your twin is a way of saying you're connected on a deeper level than a normal set of friends.
Usually, this term is used by adults. But these "twin" girls have adopted the term into their own lives, and they're not about to give that up because of some haters.
Zuri Copeland and Jia Sarnicola are best friends, or as they call it, twins. The 4-year-old girls may not look alike, but that doesn't make a difference to them.
"They're both little Geminis," Ashley Riggs Sarnicola, Jia's mom, said. "They have very strong personalities and are both super outgoing, well-spoken, intelligent, and not afraid to tell you what they want. They hit it off right away."
"It is unbelievable. They connected very well immediately," Valencia Copeland, Zuri's mom, told ABC News. "It was amazing how they've gelled together."
But not everyone totally understands these "twins" and their bond. At a birthday party recently, the girls encountered someone who wanted to call their bluff.
"They were at a birthday party for a mutual friend, waiting in line to get their faces painted," Sarnicola said. "She was telling a girl's older sister they were twins, and the girl gave her an odd look and said, "˜You're not twins. There is no way you and Zuri are twins you don't have the same color skin!' My little girl started bawling crying because she truly believes she and Zuri are twins."
But through her tears, Jia had the best response.
"'You don't know anything. We are twins because we have the same birthday and the same soul,'" Sarnicola said. "When she said that, it took me aback. It was so sweet."
The girls were born two days apart, but those two days don't mean anything to them. They celebrated their birthdays on the same day, which is how they decided they were twins. Sarnicola says it's growing up in Miami that has taught the girls so well.
"We have always taught the girls that being different is cool, and to make friends with new people every day," she said. "In their class at school, there are six different languages between the 15 kids. I think that's one of the nice things about growing up in a multicultural, melting pot city. They don't see color. We've never talked to them about it, period."
The girls' story is going viral, and people are loving how connected these twins are.
Share this if you think twins can look different and still be connected!