Here’s the reason why the young Daya looks so much like Dascha Polanco in “Orange Is the New Black”

If you’re anything like us, you’ll have already binge-watched Season 5 of Orange Is the New Black. And, if you’re anything like us, you’re wondering how the heck they managed to make the young Daya look so much like Dascha Polanco during her flashback episode.

There were more than a few surprises when OITNB returned to Netflix earlier this month, including the reappearance of this beloved character, how our opinions changed about Piscatella, or the insurmountable number of questions that we have following that game-changing season finale.

One of the surprises that we had during Season 5 was just how similar the young Daya looked to her modern counterpart, played by Dascha Polanco.

During the eighth episode of the season, we got even more insight into Daya’s relationship with her mother, Aleida, played by Elizabeth Rodriguez. The flashback gave us a peek at 14-year-old Daya, and goodness the resemblance to Polanco was uncanny.

However, some clever internet sleuths put on their detective hats and fired up their little grey cells (or, you know, google) in an attempt to figure out whether the resemblance could be a familial one. After some digging, a Twitter user discovered that the actor who played the young Daya is, in fact, Polanco’s 15-year-old daughter, Dasany Kristal Gonzalez! false

MIND. BLOWN.

While Dascha might not look old enough to have a 15-year-old daughter, she does. The 34-year-old actor gave birth to her daughter when she was 18 years old. In fact, as E! News points out, Polanco has previously spoken about her daughter in Latina magazine, describing her as a “miracle baby.” 

While we thought there might be some relation between the two when we saw the scene, we still can’t quite get over just how much they look alike.

Unfortunately, this revelation doesn’t answer the question regarding what will happen to Daya (or the rest of the inmates) when Orange Is the New Black returns next year.