Betty and Hanna will be featured in the weekly magazine Libelle at the end of this week: identical twins, one of whom has vitiligo and the other does not. Betty and Hanna tell their story in issue 32, which will be in stores on Friday, July 21. Subscribers will receive the issue on their doorstep on Thursday.

Members of Vitiligo.nl probably remember Betty Sijtsma and Hanna from Splunter, because they were on the cover of Spotlight last year. The twins, of whom Betty is a member of Vitiligo.nl, are now 72 years old. Betty and Hanna exemplify the great mystery of vitiligo. No one knows why vitiligo manifests itself in one sister and not in the other, even though it is a genetically determined condition and identical twins have exactly the same genes. In Spotlight no. 1 of 2016 dermatologist Marcel Bekkenk said that at least 30 genes are involved in vitiligo. “We understand vitiligo better and better,” he said at the time. 'But why is only one person affected in some families? And why sometimes only one half of identical twins? What was the push to start losing pigment? We do not know that.'

This time Betty and Hanna tell their story in a report in the Libelle, together with two other twin couples. The report was made by freelance journalist Lisa Becker and includes a new, beautiful photo series.