SEPARATED @ BIRTH

SEPARATED @ BIRTH is a heartwarming, social media story for our times of how two girls who didn’t know that they had been lost to each other, renew the intimate bonds of sisterhood. It is a story gets to the very heart of the nature versus nurture question—Samantha grew up in New Jersey and Anais was raised in a suburb of Paris, but the commonalities continue to reveal themselves—and redefines the boundaries of what we call family.

It all began when French design student Anaïs Bordier viewed a YouTube video and saw her own face staring back. After some research, Anaïs found that the Los Angeles actress Samantha Futerman was born in a South Korean port city called Busan on November 19, 1987—the exact same location and day that Anaïs was born. This propelled her to make contact via Facebook, and one message later, both girls wondered: Could they be twins?

Thus begins the remarkable journey of two young women, reconnecting for the first time since they shared their mother’s snug womb. Together, they decided to make a documentary that will chronicle their improbable journey together as they get to know each other, meet in person for the first time and take a DNA test to confirm their siblingship, and to finance thae documentary with a Kickstarter campaign. To say that the Kickstarter page went viral would be an understatement: all hell broke loose. Dozens upon dozens of media outlets from around the world tried desperately to get the girls (or their parents) to be interviewed (an updated list of requests is attached), although the authors quickly decided not to do any interviews until they have a book (and documentary) ready to promote. In addition to this media maelstrom, the acquiring publisher would inherit one of the best collaborators in the business: I’ve paired the girls with Lisa Pulitzer, whom the New York Times profiled last month. Rarely do we get anything more from Facebook than the rekindling of a superficial connection or the fleeting thrill of acknowledgement that a “friend” request or a “like” bestows.
What Samantha Futerman received was something more real and lasting, like a blip from outer space that says, you’re not as alone as you think.

Samantha Futerman was adopted as an infant and raised in New Jersey. She currently lives in Los Angeles, where she is pursuing a career as an actress. Her credits include roles in the films Memoirs of a Geisha and 21 & Over, and the television series Suburgatory, The Big C, and Up All Night, among others. https://twitter.com/samfuterman
Anaïs Bordier was adopted as an infant and grew up in the suburbs of Paris. She recently graduated from the acclaimed Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design in London with a degree in fashion design. Currently she lives in Paris, where she is working as a leather-goods designer for Gerard Darel.
Lisa Pulitzer has coauthored and ghostwritten numerous books, several of which have become New York Times bestsellers.