I’m 21 years old and I’m as in love with the Jonas Brothers as I was when I was 16 and first heard their music. I remember that day too and it always make me smile. It was in 2006. My sister who was 13 at the time called me into the living room. She said, “Hey Steph, come listen to this song!” and I asked who it was. She said it was some band of brothers and I was like “I don’t care!” and she said “But it’s a song from The Little Mermaid.” Now… for those of you who don’t know, The Little Mermaid is, to this day, my favorite movie ever. If someone sings a song from it they better sing it right or else I want nothing to do with them. So I was like “fine”. She turned the volume up and I see these three dark haired guys at this local pool singing Poor Unfortunate Souls with a pop/rock feel to it. My first thought was “Hey… he’s cute” my second thought was “They’re really good!”.
The next thing I heard was Kids of the Future which was pretty cool. Their self-titled album came out the following summer with Hold On and SOS coming out as singles/music videos in the spring/early summer. My sister got the CD for her birthday and immediately we listened to it and then we listened to it and listened and listened non-stop. We discovered Hello Beautiful to be our favorite song from the album. It made me believe in love and that guys really could be... beautiful.
Que my senior year of high school. SOS was a big song but no one really knew that I liked them so no big deal. When they went on the Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana Best of Both Worlds Tour, I wanted to go so badly. My Mom’s work gets free tickets to the arena that they were going to be at so my sister and I begged for her to grab them. We went and actually saw them in concert for the first time. It was amazing. Year 3000 was so much fun and just…. *gush*. When I went back to school I brought this Miley/Hannah poster for this guy in my class who thought she was “pretty” haha I didn’t buy the poster for him. My Mom went to buy us posters and stuff while we watched them perform and she thought she grabbed a Jonas poster but it wasn’t until we got home and I opened it that we realized it was Miley. Needless to say I was disappointed. This kid in my class who I used to be friends with was like “Did you go to that concert?” in a disgusted tone because if it’s not something he likes it’s disgusting to him because he is one of the most judgmental people ever because at the time he was insecure about being gay. And I said, “Yeah… but not for Miley” and he scoffed and goes “So you went for the Jonas Brothers?” and the girls he was friends with laughed and that’s when I knew that at my age it was not “socially acceptable” to like the Jonas Brothers. I didn’t have to hide it much more at school since I was going to be graduating. But that summer…
I got every teen magazine possible with their faces on the cover or with pull out posters in the middle. Almost every available inch of wall space in my room was covered by a Jonas Brother or even just a Jonas family member. My parents were a little taken a back at first because, come on, I was 18. They thought I would have gone through a phase like that. Sure, growing up I loved the Backstreet Boys but I wasn’t in love with them like I am with the Jonas Brothers. I didn’t care to know everything about BSB like their birthdays or their families. There’s just something about the Jonas’ that draws me to them. The entire family, not just Kevin, Joe, and Nick.
Here I am… almost five years later and I’m as in love with them, if not more, as I was when I was 16. Their music never fails to make me smile or sing along or tap my foot. I’ve been lucky enough to see them in concert three times. Hopefully I’ll be lucky enough to meet them someday, as well as Frankie and their parents and Dani. But… even at 21… soon to be a college senior… I’m not ashamed anymore. Most of my friends at first are like “seriously” but then they get over because they don’t care. Because they love me. Not my music taste. I have a JB poster hanging next to my bed in my dorm. I have a poster of Joe from the second Rolling Stone issue on the cork board of my desk. I wear my Jonas shirts around the dorm. I have CR and CR2 in my DVD bin. If someone has a problem with the fact that I love the Jonas Brothers and uses that as the deciding factor of whether or not they want to be my friend than screw ‘em. I don’t need them.
The Jonas Brothers are always going to be a part of my life no matter my age. They were the first band I actually, truly, deeply loved and love every bit of. I love Nick’s side project. I’m extremely excited for Joe’s solo album. I’m anticipating Kevin and Dani’s future children. I just have so much respect for them and how they don’t care about the haters. Joe said, “I know we’ve lost fans but it’s not about quantity, it’s about quality. The best fans stayed with us” and I am proud to say that I’m one of those fans and always will be, no matter what society says is right or wrong.
