On April 10, Carletwin, the Carleton club for twins and multiples, hosted “Twinner,” a dinner for twins, in the Burton Dining Hall. The event included a variety of twins and triplets from around campus. While two pairs of twins and a triplet showed up, the dinner was attended by many “singleton twins” — students whose twin attends another school — and a prospective student in Northfield for Carls Day to discuss their shared identity of being twins.
Co-presidents of Carletwin, Zoe Heart ’26, Ryan Bernstein ’26, and Al Bonnevie-Rothrock ’26, inherited the Carletwin club from recently graduated seniors. Bernstein describes the club as a place for “twins to gather and talk about being twins,” because “there’s a lot of twins” at Carleton whose twin goes to another college. “A lot of us grew up with our twins, and it’s the first time in our lives where we’re independent,” he said.
“I think coming to college for twins … is often the first time where being a twin isn’t a huge part of how they’re perceived by other people,” said Heart. “So coming to college for a lot of singleton twins is actually a huge step in forming an identity of [their] own.” Carletwin connects students going through the same thing with each other, creating a space to “talk about that, and talk about something that makes you unique and differentiate[s] your experience from other students is really nice.”
According to Heart, while the twins at Carleton each have unique backgrounds — being identical or fraternal, coming to Carleton with or without their twin, etc. — the experience of having a companion through life is massively influential. “People have really different experiences, but for everybody it’s kind of a big part of them,” said Heart.
Heart said being a twin “drew [her] to other twins, just cause we have that thing in common.” This experience was shared by other twins, including Caletwin members Asia Mikluszaka ’27 and Iza Mikluszaka ’27 who said that their first friends at Carleton were also twins.
Attendance at club events has been spotty at times, but the club “had a couple good events — twin gatherings — in the fall.” Bernstein describes the club as “picking up speed again … So this spring we want to make it bigger, because we know there are so many twins here.”
While identical twins often lead to good-natured jokes, Bernstein says he’s “actually been surprised by the amount of really good, fulfilling conversations [he’s] been able to have with the few people that’ve been coming to twin club.”
“I felt like I’ve learned more about myself from talking to other people who have this shared identity with you; it’s kind of unique, whether you’re identical or fraternal,” said Bernstein.
“A lot of times, we as twins don’t realize how formative being a twin was in our identity until we talk to other twins, and we just instantly have a lot to talk about,” said Heart. She described some of the questions asked at Twinner on Thursday, including “‘Are you the top or bottom bunk?’, ‘Are you the sporty twin or the smart twin?’”
The tradition of Twinner came out of the three co-presidents having dinner together. “The three of us would eat dinner together and we call it twinner, but it’s really just dinner,” said Bernstein. “But every so often we’ll email people like, ‘Come, sit with us!’”
At Twinner on Thursday, the group talked about their experiences and shared pictures. They also discussed future ideas for the club. “One huge goal we have is going to a Minnesota Twins game. Everybody can wear their hats that say ‘Twins’ and we can get a picture,” said Heart. Other ideas included more twin socials, more Twinners, and maybe “Twennis.”
According to Heart, the group also presented more silly ideas: “somebody presented the idea last night of having an identical ‘genes’ party, where you either bring your identical twin or wear the same jeans as somebody else.” Heart said.
For the identical twins who don’t have their twins here, she said, “We joke about going full-length mirror shopping so they can pretend to see their identical twin.”
Bernstein says that their club is young. “We want to create a bigger community now so we have enough that the club doesn’t die out after we graduate,” said Bernstein, referencing himself as well as Heart and Bonnevie-Rothrock, current juniors. “I’d be sad to see [Carletwin] fizzle out after I go,” he said. “It has been a small but lovely part of my Carleton experience.”