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the best friends you’ll never have

MizzMarvel posted this article on her livejournal.

The article states:

When they get older, Logan, Eli and Collin Penn may blanch at the notion they wore nail polish to their first news conference. But it’s the only way their parents know how to tell the boys apart right now. The identical triplets were born Wednesday at North Shore University Hospital on Long Island — an event so rare that an obstetrician estimated it might happen just once in 200 million births.

I’m interested in whether Ann knew how rare identical triplets were when she made Adam, Byron, and Jordan Pike identical triplets. Until today, I had never given it a second thought. I had assumed that the ratio of fraternal triplets to identical triplets was the same as that for fraternal twins to identical twins. I had no idea that it was something which would merit national coverage.


Do you think that Ann just made the Pike triplets identical because she is so into big families and thought it was cool? She also seems to be very interested in identical twins, as you have Marilyn/Carolyn, Miranda/Mariah, and Abby/Anna. The only fraternal twins in the series I can think of are Tasha and Terry Hoyt, who, of course, could not be identical.

It seems to me like Ann really didn’t do her research here, because it seems like something would have been noted about the attention that the triplets received at birth. As MizzMarvel noted, I think it would definitely be something that Mal would have had issues with, since she was a lowly single, non-identical birth whereas BAJ got a ton of attention at birth.

6 Responsed To This Post

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Adelaide Dupont said, March 6th, 2008 at 2:08 am

I never heard of Miranda and Mariah in the series.

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bbb said, March 6th, 2008 at 2:18 am

Miranda and Mariah Shillaber, friends of Mary Anne’s and Kristy’s. They sit with them at lunch in the first few books, but after that they sort of disappear.

I read this story today and immediately thought of the Pike triplets!

I think she was just way into big families and thought identical triplets sounded cool. I didn’t know they were so rare myself…

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Solitude said, March 6th, 2008 at 1:52 pm

I actually knew a set of identical male triplets in elementary school, so this really surprises me. I knew they must be rare, but they must have been the only identical male triplets born in the U.S. that decade! Maybe they were fraternal and I just didn’t notice the slight differences in appearance?

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myu said, March 6th, 2008 at 2:29 pm

I never really thought much of it before, but I was aware that it was really rare. Is it more common to have three non-identical triplets or triplets that are made up of one set of twins and one non-identical triplet?

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Laura @ hungryandfrozen said, March 7th, 2008 at 2:57 am

Whatever happened to Miranda and Mariah? Didn’t one of them get their bra snapped by Pete Black?

Remember when the triplets were calling themselves JAB? Hee. I wonder if Anne used triplets to help Mal’s family be so big, so quickly - if Mal was the eldest of eight kids that didn’t include triplets (or even twins) but the youngest of which was not a baby, she probably would be older than eleven. Ugh, sorry if that last sentance was muddled!

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Lou said, March 9th, 2008 at 3:57 am

Yeah, I always wondered how they managed to have eight kids on the space of eleven years. That would take an intense toll on your body. Plus, when the Pikes were younger that would have been insane with all these babies!
Think about it: When Mallory was five, the triplets were 4, Vanessa was 3, Nicky was 2, Margo was 1, and Claire was a blob. That’s a lot of toddlers to manage! Plus getting pregnant only a few months after having TRIPLETS when you already have another baby too? That’s FOUR BABIES and one in the oven. No parent would cope!

I’ve always thought Mallory’s family was ridiculous. I’ve met families with seven kids and such but the oldest is about 22 and the youngest is nine. Thats a much bigger age difference. And far more comfortable for the mother. And safer!

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