'Outdaughtered:' How To Tell The Busby Quints Apart
The bigger they get, the more individual they each become.
Youtube Any parent can tell you that sometimes we mix our kids up. Every mom or dad has called a child by the wrong name at one time or another. The risk of confusion grows as the size of the family grows. And if a bunch of the kids are all the same age? Well, that's a recipe for all kinds of hilarious confusion between the kids.
The Busby family of Outdaughtered on TLC probably has one of the hardest times keeping all the kids straight. The family famously has the only set of all-girl quintuplets in America — and two of them are identical to one another. Mom Danielle and dad Adam Busby have the advantage of being around the girls all the time so they know all the different quirks of voice and mannerism and they can spot which girl is which more easily that TV audiences. The rest of us sometimes have to stop and think about which of the five adorable little girls we are looking at.
How to tell the Busby quints apart:
The parents used to color-code the girls.
When the babies were first born, the parents made it easy for everyone by assigning each of the girls a color and dressing them accordingly. Ava wore pink, Parker wore yellow, Riley wore purple, Hazel wore green, and Olivia wore dark pink. Now that they are five years old they don't get the color-coded clothing anymore — though they do still have earrings with colors that match their baby colors so sharp-eyed fans to use those clues to tell them apart.
But now that they are almost ready for kindergarten, the five girls have different looks and different personalities so even fans can easily pick out who is whom.
The girls in the signature colors as babies.
Ava Lane Busby
Ava is the first of the quints to have been born, but she was the very last one to be able to leave the hospital after birth. She is also one half of pair of identical twins. She and her twin used to be virtually indistinguishable from each other but as they have gotten older, the subtle differences have become more clear. Ava sports hair past her shoulders, that only curls at the very ends. Her parents say she is the sassiest of all the girls in the family and she has serious ambition in life. In a cute interview her parents did with all the girls for their shared birthday, Ava says she wants to be a doctor.
Olivia Marie Busby
The second half of the identical twins, Olivia is also the second born. She and her twin share mischievous smiles and sparkling blue eyes but where Ava's hair only curls a bit, Olivia has a gorgeous set of blonde curls. Her parents say she is the most opinionated sister and isn't afraid to share what she thinks. She has different career ideas that her twin: she says she wants to be a bird.
Hazel Grace Busby
Fans of the quints can relax when it comes to identifying Hazel in a Busby Quint Quiz. The middle child of the five has two easily identifying features: her red hair and her glasses. Born with nystagmus, Hazel needs corrective lenses to help her see better. She was the last of the five girls to learn to walk and her parents worried about sending her to preschool.
Her parents note that she is goofy but soft-spoken. She also has big plans for when she grows up. She says she wants to be Belle from Beauty And The Beast.
Hazel in her glasses.
Riley Paige Busby
Riley is the fourth of the five girls and she is also the smallest, for now at least. Riley jumped ahead a class in preschool already — she's the only quint in Kindergarten — because she was able to learn so quickly. Her mom even says "She is way too smart for her own self." Someday she hopes to be a firefighter.
Riley carrying a bunch of boxes.
Parker Kate Busby
Parker was the last Quint born but she, along with sister Hazel, was one of the first two to leave the NICU in 2015. She stands out for having the silkiest blond hair. These days, her parents say she is the girliest of the crew and loves to play with makeup and hair with oldest sister Blayke. When she grows up, she wants to be Elsa from Frozen but with a long dress.
Parker loves Elsa.
Rebekah Kuschmider has been writing about celebrities, pop culture, entertainment, and politics since 2010. She is the creator of the blog FeminXer and she is a cohost of the weekly podcast The More Perfect Union.