Meet Granada Hills Charter twins and triplets

Granada Hills Charter High School has more than two dozen sets of multiples twins and triplets.  Despite the abundance of multiples at GHCHS, many people find the biological phenomena extremely intriguing.  In the back of their minds, people often wonder how others can tell identical siblings apart, if they share a special bond, and if they get along.  With so many twins and triplets at GHCHS, I gave several of these siblings the chance to set things straight.

As far as appearance goes, some identical twins purposely change their looks to help people tell them apart.  Seniors Ameen and Hamed Seyedroudbani wear different colored glasses. Junior Eddie Leon wears neon shoes and grows his hair out while his twin Erik Leon works out more to stay, as he put it, “chunkier.”

Others naturally have different physical characteristics that distinguish them. Sophomore Amanda Wilheim has more freckles and a higher voice than her sister Jessica Wilheim, who tends to wear her hair tied up or in a braid. Freshman Jordan Shaw has a line of moles across her face while her sister Ryan Shaw has only a few by her mouth. Senior triplets Stephanie, Merlin, and Kimberly Pinedo have different shaped noses and dress in different styles.

The Pinedo triplets and the Shaw twins both agree that they do share clothes sometimes, but they hate the others’ fashion styles overall. The Wilheim twins, however, end up looking even more similar when they dress in their cheerleading uniforms.

“Besides our fashion choices, our personalities are also completely different. Stephanie is the mean one, Merlin is the nice one, and I’m the quiet one,” Kimberly Pinedo said.

Though switching places does not tend to work on any of their parents, there are some great stories about tricking teachers. Ryan and Jordan Shaw switched places during chemistry one day, but their trick failed when the teacher assigned a pop quiz.

Though most of the twins and triplets have not tried switching places since their elementary and middle school days, some still continue to prank their teachers.

“Sometimes Eddie will show up to one of my classes and confuse my teachers. They’ll be like ‘Wait, what? There’s two of you?’” Erik Leon said.

There are indeed two of them, and the fact that identical twins came from the same cell causes many people to believe they can feel each other’s emotions. Though some laughed and replied that twin telepathy is not a real thing, some enthusiastically replied, in unison, that it is in fact real. The Shaw twins state that when one of them gets injured or sick, the other one can feel it too.

“Sometimes, we’ll just be sitting and then, all of a sudden, a song pops into both of our heads and we start singing. It’s really crazy,” Eddie Leon said.

The only problem with having a twin or triplet comes once a year: on their birthday.

“It sucks not having your own birthday. One song, one cake, one party for the three of us,” sophomore triplet Stephanie Ushakov said.

Even though their personalities vary, most of the twins share similar interests. The Leon twins both play on the varsity soccer team with Eddie as a forward and Erik as a midfielder. The Wilheim twins are both fliers on the varsity cheerleading team. The Seyedroudbani twins both play soccer, basketball, and tennis on teams outside of GHCHS.

“People always think that twins have different personalities, but we actually share most of our interests. You always know that you have someone by your side in whatever you’re doing,” Jessica Wilheim said.