TAYLOR MUHL: My whole life I was always told that my second colour skin pigmentation was
just a birthmark. The doctors just didn’t know about my condition.
TAYLOR MUHL: At a very young age, I used to ask my mom if I was a twin. I used to ask
her all the time, like, kind of almost obsessively.
ALEX WOOD: Even though twins run in our family, I, of course, thought, you know, ‘No, honey.
You are not a twin. I don’t know why you keep saying that?’
TAYLOR MUHL: I always had obviously a feeling that I did have a sibling and, you know, if
that’s on a subconscious level, I don’t really know. I definitely feel that I have
missed my twin. My name is Taylor and I am my own twin.
COMM: Taylor Muhl was born with a rare condition called chimerism.
TAYLOR MUHL: It is where two fraternal twin eggs fuse together in the womb, usually, in
the early stages of pregnancy. My condition is really rare. There has only been a hundred
cases documented in the world.
ALEX WOOD: I never knew that I was going to have twins ahead of time because I didn’t
go through the normal procedures that women do when they are pregnant. I had midwives
who did everything naturally. I didn’t want to do ultrasound.
COMM: The only thing that indicated her condition was unusual skin colouration on her body.
ALEX WOOD: The pigmentation on her stomach was something that nobody could figure out;
no doctor and I just always told her she was special. We just called it her birthmark.
ALEX WOOD: As soon as we found out that Taylor was a twin and that she had actually absorbed
her twin, it made perfect sense to me.
TAYLOR MUHL: Being a chimera is very tricky. It’s basically having totally two different
humans. But, like under the same hood of the car, so to speak. I have two genetic make-ups within one body.
ALEX WOOD: Taylor struggles daily with health issues. She has chronic pain.
TAYLOR MUHL: It has lowered my immune system, much lower than the average person’s.
ONDRE SELTZER: Taylor reached out to me during some complications. It appeared that the immune
system was attacking itself. I was called in as a specialist in energy medicine to take
a look to see what I could do with natural healing. I have been helping Taylor to manage
the pain in treating her condition by literally going all-natural.
TAYLOR MUHL: I have had to basically change my entire life, my diet, you know, supplements
I take, exercise, sleep. Before I knew I was a chimera, I actually did try to have it lasered
off of me. It was so painful to the point that it brought me to tears. So it cannot be removed.
TAYLOR MUHL: I definitely at times in my life have been insecure about showing my torso.
JIM JORDAN: When I met Taylor and she felt alienated and she felt that she was not like all the other girls.
JIM JORDAN: When I heard Taylor’s story about her chimerism, I was compelled to help her
reach an audience that could really share to the world what she was going through. I
feel like she has a powerful story to tell. I don’t think a lot of people have ever
heard of anything like this.
TAYLOR MUHL: What gave me the confidence to finally come out about being a chimera, most
importantly is, I realised I have been hiding this my entire life.
JIM JORDAN: It’s been really incredible.
COMM: Taylor now works in the entertainment industry and hopes that by sharing her story
about chimerism, she can help others who might be going through similar things.
TAYLOR MUHL: A goal of mine is definitely someday to have a Chimera and Autoimmune Foundation.
If somebody thinks they are a chimera, I want to be able to say to them, ‘Here, go to
this facility. You know there’s a geneticist on hand, we have counsellors that can help
with body issues.’ I want to be able to give that to somebody.
TAYLOR MUHL: My message to the world is don’t ever let anybody tell you that you can’t do something.
TAYLOR MUHL: If you are different, if it is due to a physical abnormality or a condition
you have, anything. It doesn’t matter. There is a place for everybody in this world and
we are all special, we are all unique, we all have something to give.