The Jonas Brothers' family tree actually has a lot more star power than you may be familiar with.
Sure, the famous band has brothers Nick, Joe and Kevin, but there's also a fourth brother, Frankie, who is carving his own path in the spotlight.
Dubbed "the Bonus Jonas" by the group's fans, the 20-year-old is opening up in a new interview with Bustle about his experience growing up in such close proximity to his brothers' fame, and how nicknames like that one damaged his sense of self.
“I always hated that nickname,” said Frankie Jonas. “A lot of my problem with being in the public eye was that I was seen as this commodified vision of myself.”
“I refused to call Frankie ‘Bonus Jonas’ after he opened up to me about how that was hurtful to him,” Joe Jonas, who also spoke to the outlet, said. “It completely makes sense, and we’ve had lengthy conversations and apologies behind closed doors that showcased my understanding and respect for his wishes. I think to feel like you are second, third, or fourth best from something is unfair; we are all equals.”
When he was almost a teenager, Frankie Jonas logged into Twitter for the first time on his phone and he searched for himself. “It was all pretty awful things for a 12-year-old to read,” he explained, referring to insults about his weight or lack of fame that damaged his body image and self-worth.
"A lot of it was like, 'If you ever feel forgotten, remember this guy.' Or, 'Frankie Jonas is a talentless sack of s---,'" he added.
"It became a form of self-harm to look at these things," Frankie Jonas continued. "Then it became essentially an OCD, like a tic. I couldn't stop. I checked it every day, and I had to, to feel OK in a way. It really became a serious issue for me. A lot of that perpetuated the idea that I was just this meme. I was this joke, and my entire identity to people was 'adjacent,' which really affected myself and the way that I thought about the world and the way I felt about myself."
No matter how much he tried running away from his brothers' fame while a teen, their iconic name stayed with him. But today he's reflecting on those experiences differently than he once did.
"That was my biggest issue with my name and with my public image," he told Bustle. "The second that people knew who my family was or who I was, I felt that connection, that tether of empathy, get cut."
Today, Frankie Jonas is basking in his own light on the social media platform TikTok, where he has amassed almost 2 million followers and has become a star in his own right.
"Everything that I talk about on TikTok ... no one knew that that was how I speak, how I express myself, what I think is funny," he said. "I was just making jokes, thinking no one was hearing them. And then people heard them and liked them. I thought, 'I'm going to continue to do this,' because I've never had my thing really. This feels like so much of my thing. It feels so empowering to have a thing."
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