Opposites attract, even in the case of twins.

Amber and Bonnie Baker are twins in their junior year at NIU. Amber is majoring in dance performance, and Bonnie is majoring in criminology.

“It is kind of like the ballerina meets the cop,” Amber said.

Although the girls are very different, they have something in common: NIU.

The girls applied to separate schools and joked that Lewis University offered them a “two-for-one deal.” Both girls chose NIU not to stay together, but because they each received individual scholarships.

“I chose to come to NIU because I got offered a dance scholarship,” Amber said.

However, what brought Bonnie to NIU was quite different.

“They gave me an academic scholarship,” Bonnie said.

While growing up, their mother encouraged them to express their individuality as best as they both could.

“My mom wanted us to develop our own individual personalities,” Bonnie said. “We definitely did. No one believed we were twins growing up. She has dark, curly hair, and I had straight, blonde hair.”

The girls’ mother requested that they be put into separate classes in school.

In fact, the only classes the girls ever have had together were in preschool and kindergarten.

“We are completely opposite,” Bonnie said. “We have some close friends who are the same, but all of our other friends are different. We are pretty independent of each other.”

While in high school, the girls were so different that they not only had separate groups of friends, but they also belonged to the pom squad in different years.

“I danced freshman and sophomore year, and Amber did it junior and senior year,” Bonnie said

Bonnie said one of the drawbacks of being a twin is getting in trouble for things she didn’t do.

“It used to be a problem when we were little, but not so much anymore,” Bonnie said.

Amber agreed.

“Trying to get equal attention from our parents was also another problem,” Amber said.

Although the Bakers are not identical twins, they sometimes think the same.

“Sometimes we get dressed here at school, and we will be wearing the exact same thing without even talking about it,” Amber said.

“It has happened more than once,” Bonnie added.

Dressing alike is something the girls didn’t do when they were younger because of their different tastes in clothes.

“She always dressed very feminine with frilly socks,” Bonnie said. “I was the one fighting my mom to take off the socks and let me wear pants to church.”

Although the girls are very different, similar characteristics distinguish them as sisters.

“We are both very emotional,” the girls said at the same time.