Look-Alike College Friends Find Out They're "Sisters" After Discovering They Have A Common Sperm-Donor Father

Tulane University freshmen, Mikayla Stern-Ellis, 19, befriended fellow-Californian Emily Nappi, 18, met and became friends at college before discovering that they're half-sisters through a common sperm-donor father. But it wasn't just a West Coast upbringing that the two shared. 

 

Mikayla said she first made contact with Emily last summer while searching for a possible roommate on Facebook. 'There was an online survey, and we were both interested in Wall [Residential College],' Mikayla said. 'I was looking at the survey, and I was looking at Emily’s answers and I saw that we had a lot in common.' By then, Emily had already secured a roommate but the two continued to talk and became fast friends when they met in person on the New Orleans, Louisiana campus this fall. Both quickly figured out that they were conceived by a donation from an anonymous donor. But neither thought much of it, even when they figured out that both of their donors were Colombian.

 

When the girls went home for winter break, Mikayla told her parents about her new friend with whom she had so much in common. Mikayla's mother Heidi remembers looking through the donor list two decades ago and while there were some 1,000 donors on the list, she doesn't remember any  others with Colombian ethnicity. After seeing pictures of Emily, and remarking on how much she looked like her own daughter, she told Mikayla to text the girl asking for the sperm donor's number. Emily sent the number and it was a match, completely taking the two girls by surprise since they had been joking to schoolmates that there was a '25 per cent chance we're sisters'. 

 

Following the life-changing realization, the interests the girls shared before make much more sense. Both will perform in Tulane's upcoming production of the Vagina Monologues which means they may be taking after their father who listed drama as one of his interests on his donor profile. They also share the same mind when it comes to fashion, both buying the same fleece sweater without the other one knowing on Black Friday. For Mikayla, finding her half-sister in a college friend is proof that she's at the right school.
'For me Tulane just felt right, and this is one of the many things that proves I made the right decision,' Mikayla Stern-Ellis said.

 

'We thought [going to Tulane] she’d just find an education, but she found a sister,' mother Debra Stern-Ellis said. The two have since changed their Facebook profile pictures to an image of them hugging. After posting the picture on her profile, Mikayla wrote: 'An invisible thread connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place, and circumstance.'