Conjoined Twins "Abby and Brittany" Show That Nothing is Insurmountable

When conjoined twins Abby and Brittany Hensel were born, doctors told their parents that they weren't likely to survive the night. But they have proven doctors and any other naysayers wrong and not only survived, but have thrived and grown into two 22-year-old girls who happen to share the same body. Now TLC is giving them their own reality TV show, although the girls have shunned the spotlight for quite some time.

Only one in 40,000 births are conjoined twins and just 1% of those survives to the age of 1. So to say that Abby and Brittany are a miracle is an understatement. Raised in rural Minnesota, their parents have shielded them from the spotlight but the girls have appeared on TV on rare occasions. When they were just 6-years-old they appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show and the cover of Life magazine, and also appeared once on a TLC special on their lives while still in high school. The most shocking thing about Abby and Brittany isn't that they are conjoined–it's how normal their lives are.

Abby and Brittany's body is fused at the torso, where Abby controls the right side and Brittany controls the left side. You would think that it would be a monumental feat to just get out of bed in the morning and get dressed, but Abby and Brittany have navigated the world succesfully and earned their driver's license, graduated from college and are now ready to enter the job market. These girls' story shows that there really is nothing in this world that is insurmountable if you have the right attitude and the will to live.