Confessions of a Tween Fan Girl

With every boy band comes a band of girls. These girls, often referred to as “Fan Girls”, are a loyal and dedicated group. They know all of the songs and their walls are filled with posters of the boy band. Their stomping ground is the World Wide Web where they prowl the comment sections searching for “haters.” They will stop at nothing to defend their beloved boys. Fan girls typically fall between the ages of tween and early teens and with hormones raging, these girls are a force to be reckoned with.

Looking back on time, every generation of tween girls had their boy band. In the 60s girls wanted to hold hands with the Beatles. While in the 80s, New Kids on the Block had the right stuff. During the 90s the Backstreet Boys were larger than life. Then, girls everywhere were burnin’ up for the Jonas Brothers in the 2000s. Currently, the world’s tweens and teens know what makes them beautiful because of One Direction (moment of silence for Zayn [and I guess the whole band now]). My tween days fell in line with the Jonas Brothers rise to tween world domination. We were the Jonas Sisters and this is my story.

I first heard about the Jonas Brothers in 7th grade from my best friend Lizzie. When she played their smash hit “Year 3000” for me on her iPod, I was a new girl. My heart fluttered when I heard Nick’s angelic, prepubescent voice describe his trip to the future. I imagined it really was the Year 3000 and that Nick loved me. Together him and I lived underwater and floated above the floor. It was in this moment that I began to believe music could really change a person’s life for the better. When I got home from school that day, I abandoned all chances of me doing my homework and I logged onto Youtube. I spent the rest of the night watching Jonas Brothers’ videos and reading articles about them. I was 12 years old and this was the first day of the rest of my life.

I slowly began to fill my room with posters and within the week had learned every word to their songs. I read every article I could get my hands on and soon learned everything about them. I even changed my name on MySpace to “Morgan Jonas”, and became a “Youtube Comment Defender”. I spent hours standing up for my boys when the haters attacked. I was convinced that with my facts and sassy comebacks I could stop them. “They’re not gay,” I said, “You’re just jealous because millions of girls are in love with them and you’re probably single, ugly, and home alone with no friends!!!”

Although Nick was the initial love of my life, I soon realized that Kevin was the one for me. I’m not sure why I changed my mind, maybe it was his impressive guitar skills, his joking attitude, or the fact that he was older that Nick and therefore more mature (his relationship drama was never in Tiger Beat), but I knew one thing, he was the JoBro for me. I may have only been 12 years old and he may have been 20, but I knew one day I was going to be Mrs. Paul Kevin Jonas Jr. I mean age is just a number, am I right?!

Kevin and I on a hot summer day in 2008

The greatest day of my life came on July 9, 2009. I was going to a Jonas Brothers’ Concert. My friend Alainna and I spent the whole day making t-shirts and posters for the concert. After we were done, my dad drove us down to the Bradley Center and I couldn’t contain my excitement, “Drive faster, Dad!!” I yelled from the passenger seat, “I want to get there!!”

“Morgan, if you don’t calm down, I’m turning this damn car around,” he said. I sat quietly in my seat for the remainder of the ride. Although I doubt my dad would actually do that, I wasn’t willing to risk it. When Alainna and I walked through the doors of the Bradley Center I stopped for a second to take it all in. All around me there were fangirls just like me.

Everyone was so nice and excited for the concert. I felt at home. We bought our official tour t-shirts and waited for the concert to start. We jammed through the Wonder Girls and Jordin Sparks before it was time. The lights went out and a single spotlight lit the stage. A guitar strummed and the Jonas Brothers rose like the sun on a warm summer morning. A single tear dripped from my eye as the crowd erupted with screams. The Jonas Brothers were in the building and that was the happiest moment of my life.

About halfway through the show, Nick sat down at the piano and the arena became silent. Even the smallest of a fan knew what was about to happen and it was time to be serious. This happened at every show; Nick shared his emotional journey with diabetes. It was a heartfelt moment and time for the boys to connect with their fans on a deeper level. “I love you, Nick!” I yelled from my seat as tears streamed down my face. The last time I was overcome with such emotions was during the plane scene of Rugrats in Paris. Everyone else had a mom and Chucky sat by himself while I Want A Mom That’ll Last Forever by Cyndi Lauper played in the background (Love you, Mom!). My tween heart couldn’t take it and I sat down for a moment. After I collected myself, I stood up again and enjoyed the rest of the show. When the lights came on at the end, the fan girls joined together and yelled for an encore. With no success, we proceeded to exit the arena to look for our parents waiting to pick us up. The best night of my life thus far was officially over. That night, I reflected on the show with series of mixed emotions. I was overjoyed that it had happened, sad that it was over, and scared that my life peaked at the age of 14.

Me at the Jonas Brothers World Tour in 2009

The fall of that year, I entered high school. This was a turning point in my life. Each morning I drove to school with my sister and we listened to country music instead of the Jonas Brothers. I grew up in a family that loved country music, but aside from early years of Taylor Swift, I had never listened to it that much. As the year went on, I slowly started to listen to country more and the Jonas Brothers less. It appeared that other girls I had felt the same way. Their album sales dropped and Nick and Joe tried to go solo for a while, but weren’t too successful (keep in mind this was 2009-2010, before Jealous came out). Kevin got married and started a family of his own. Before long, the Jonas Brothers were nothing but a memory. They did try to make a come back, but after that failed, the brothers officially called it quits on October 30, 2013. It was a sad day and I learned Nick was right when he said, “You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone”. The Jonas Brothers may be gone, but they will forever be on my iPod.

Jan 16, 2018 UPDATE: *This was written in 2015 long before the Jonas Brothers reactivated their Instagram!!!

Feb 28, 2019 UPDATE: *That edit was before the JONAS BROTHERS GOT BACK TOGETHER