Abby and Brittany Hensel, 34-year-old conjoined twins, are breaking barriers as elementary school teachers. They graduated college a decade ago and have overcome so many challenges tied to their unique condition.
They share one body but have their own heads, hearts, stomachs, spines, and lungs.
Abby and Brittany graduated from university about ten years ago. Since then, they’ve been making waves, not only for their skills as teachers but also for their unique take on compensation. Despite being conjoined since birth with a rare condition called dicephalic parapagus twinning, the twins have excelled in teaching.
They each have their own hearts, stomachs, spines, and lungs, and have worked together seamlessly to teach math to fourth and fifth graders at an elementary school since 2013. What truly sets them apart is their impressive coordination and academic accomplishments.
Because of their unique situation, Abby and Brittany made a special arrangement when it came to their salary.
“Obviously, right away, we understand that we are going to get one salary because we’re doing the job of one person,” Abby told BBC in 2013. “As maybe experience comes in, we’d like to negotiate a little bit, considering we have two degrees and because we are able to give two different perspectives or teach in two different ways,” she added.
When they first got their teaching jobs, they agreed to one salary, knowing they were doing the work of just one person.
But here’s the kicker: even though Abby and Brittany are conjoined, they’re considered individuals within the school system and each has their own degrees.
The sisters, whose parents always encouraged them to think for themselves, both graduated from Bethel University in 2012 with degrees in education. They did think about focusing on different subjects for their major but realized it would mean too much extra coursework.
In high school, they only had to pay one set of tuition fees, but two sets of registration fees, according to the NY Daily News. T
eachers would sometimes put “a sheet or a book in between them” during exams to stop them from copying. Abby and Brittany face a similar challenge when they travel — they have two passports, but only one ticket since they only need one seat on the plane.
What do you think? And before you go, be sure to check out another article about them where one-half of the conjoined twins got married, and it caused quite a stir online.
