That’s one of the reasons they’ve tried to avoid media attention.

They reluctantly did 8 episodes of a TLC show right after college- probably necessary to help pay for it.

They’ve done a documentary when they were teenagers, a handful of other interviews and that’s it.

This is from an article about the documentary:

But as the film progresses, you see that any time the twins leave their Minnesota town, people blatantly photograph them, leaving the girls feeling “violated,” according to their mother, Patty. She gets teary in the documentary when she explains how she doesn’t want her girls to grow up like circus performers, and she hasn’t let the girls speak to the media since the movie debuted two years ago. Watch the movie now—it’s still in heavy rotation on the Discovery Health network—and you can see why they’d shun the spotlight. It’s hard to shake the creepy, voyeuristic feeling you get when you watch the girls make pottery or brush each other’s hair. The narrator explains that they are, “in nearly every sense, perfectly normal teenagers.” But we know we’re watching precisely because they’re not.

https://web.archive.org/web/20120103004716/http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2008/02/minnesotas_abby.php

And I admit, I watched and read about them because they are so unusual, but I also don’t think that gives a reason to deny their individuality.

What else would it be? If your brain was put in a vat but you are still alive, wouldn’t you still consider yourself a person? I know I would.

What makes Abby and Brittany a single person rather than two individuals who happen to share body parts?

Of course. Is there a different way to see it?

You think this is an edge case, what about the Canadian twins that are joined by the brain? That’s incredible, literally could not be any more fascinating. I am aware I’m discussing people when I say that, but it really is the most fascinating thing I’ve ever seen or thought about.