Nine-year-old Sherik Elliot was born with albinism, but her twin brother Terik is dark-skinned. But because of the unusual appearance, the girl does not worry. She has an older sister with the same anomaly. Children with this feature may suffer from ridicule and inappropriate comments from others. But this is not about Sherik from Florida. She is lucky to have an older sister, Sheteria, with albinism, who supports the girl in every possible way and helps her cope with this.
20-year-old Sheteria told Metro that as a child she dreamed that she had a younger brother or sister with the same feature as hers. On average, one in 3 thousand babies of African descent is an albino. The chances of having a child with this feature increase if one or both parents have a gene that provokes albinism.
But mother and father Sherik and Sheteria did not have albinos in their family. However, the combination of their genes gave a high risk of having babies with albinism. Otherwise, how could two children with this anomaly be born in one family at once.
Despite their differences, the twins are inseparable. However, Sherik has to deal with comments about her appearance that her brother does not face.
People sometimes don’t believe that we are twins. We are completely different. He’s funnier than me, and I’m just calm. Everyone comes up to me and asks: “Why are you lighter than your brother?”.
“Because!” – I answer them. Although the older sister was glad that there was someone like her in the family. However, she worries about her and hopes that she won’t have to face the bullying she experienced as a child.
My sister helped me with my albinism, she comforts me. She helped me learn how to talk to a lot of people because I was a little shy. But now I just love making friend.
