PHILADELPHIA — From time to time, a stranger will meet Myla and Hailey Barnett and, not knowing who they are, ask them if they are athletes. It is a natural question. The twins are 21, born on Aug. 4, 2000 — Hailey beat Myla to the finish line by a minute — and they have that look, each of their frames a wiry V, though Hailey, at 5-foot-9, is 4 inches taller than her younger sister.
Yes, they’ll say, they are athletes. Division I athletes, in fact, seniors living in the same suite at the University of Virginia after spending 13 years together at The Baldwin School in Bryn Mawr. The stranger might even have heard of the twins’ parents. Their father is Fred Barnett, who had two 1,000-yard seasons during his six years as a wide receiver with the Eagles. Their mother is Jacqueline Jeffries Barnett, who served as the secretary of education for the City of Philadelphia, who studied ballet for nearly two decades and yoga for three, and who is a personal trainer and wellness coach who has worked with a handful of professional athletes, among them Charles Barkley and another former Eagles receiver, Jordan Matthews.
Then the stranger, intrigued but still quick to leap to easy conclusions, will ask the sisters the next natural question: What sport do they play? Basketball? Volleyball? Do they run track? And it is then that the twins explain how they’ve long been throwing haymakers at expectations and kicking stereotypes in the teeth.
