A "leap year baby" who should be 55 but has only celebrated 13 birthdays loves to throw herself children’s parties – and says she gets to be "young forever".<br /><br />Liz Duren, 55, was born on February 29, 1968 - a leap year - and has always seen the rare birthday as "lucky" and "special".<br /><br />When the date rolls around every four years Liz loves to have a children's party – throwing a bash fit for a 10-year-old complete with a magician and games for her 44th.<br /><br />This year she is turning 56 – although it is only the 14th time the date has reoccurred in her lifetime – and plans to have an ET themed party.<br /><br />Liz, a podcaster and local historian, from Charleston, South Carolina, US, said: “When I turned 44 I threw a 10th birthday party.<br /><br />“I had a magician and games.<br /><br />“I’m 55 but also 13.<br /><br />“I can be young forever.<br /><br />“I look great for 56 but c**p for 13.”<br /><br />Ever since she was little, Liz has always loved her leap day birthday.<br /><br />Her family threw her a first birthday party when she turned four and she ended up on the front page of her local paper.<br /><br />When it is not a leap year Liz celebrates on the following day – March 1 – but doesn’t mind when her friends wish her a happy birthday.<br /><br />She said: “It’s very confusing for all my friends for when to wish me happy birthday.<br /><br />“I’ve got two birth stones.<br /><br />“I’m really very relaxed about how people want to celebrate my birthday.<br /><br />“I try to make the 29th special.”<br /><br />This year Liz will be acting in a play on her birthday and holding an ET themed party that weekend.<br /><br />She said: “I consider myself the luckiest person in the world.<br /><br />“I make a joke about myself.”<br /><br />Liz - who is adopted - also said her rare birthday helped her track down her birth parents when she was 44.<br /><br />She was able to track down her birth mum - who does not want to be named - by contacting strangers on Facebook who went to her mother’s high school and jogging their memory with her unique date of birth.<br /><br />She was also able to track down her biological dad, Harry Bennett, 83, who she now has a close relationship with.<br /><br />Liz said: “Through my adoption documents I was able to work out her high school.<br /><br />“I contacted people she went to school with.<br /><br />“I was able to spark people’s memories with the date.<br /><br />“Being born on a unique day was easier to find my birth mum.”<br /><br />Liz hopes other leap babies can feel “lucky” to have such a special and rare birthday.<br /><br />She said: “I have only met a handle of people that have my birthday.<br /><br />“I hope they embrace it.”
