These Famous Family Members Shared What It's Like To Watch Their Siblings Become Celebrities

07/05/2024 10:34 AM

"Even at that time, as a kid, I remember thinking, 'That sucks for him.'"

Celebrities often work all their lives to achieve their level of success -- and if they're lucky, they bring their families along for the wild ride. And as these stars rise to fame, their siblings get a first-hand look at what it takes to become a celeb and what it's like to be famous. One moment they're hanging out in their parent's backyard and the next, their brother or sister is walking the red carpet. For many siblings of celebrities, it helps pave the way for their own career…or makes them realize that they don't want to be in entertainment at all!

Here's what these siblings of celebrities had to say about watching their rise to fame happen…

1. Elle Fanning

Elle Fanning's older sister Dakota Fanning gained notoriety as an actress when she was just a little girl. Looking back, Elle admits that watching Dakota's career take off was a crazy experience. She says there were fans wherever they went -- and she admits that she would sometimes purposely try to cause a commotion.

"If one person saw Dakota, it was a spiral effect," she told Porter. "I wasn't getting recognized, but I was part of the madness. I'd be like, 'Dakota! Dakota!' to try and make it happen. I was the worst."

2. Elizabeth Olsen

As the younger sister of Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, Elizabeth Olsen says watching her siblings rise to fame made her realize that she wanted to continue her education. As a little girl she got the chance to appear in some of her sister's projects -- but didn't see it as anything special and actually decided to retire when she was just 10 years old.

"Their fame made me more determined to study. I knew I wanted to be an actor, but I also didn't want to start working when I was under 18," she told The Guardian. "My parents made me write down a pros and cons list. And the cons just piled up. So I figured I'd keep acting as a hobby until I was older. Because I felt that pressure, and that people would say, 'Oh, that's nepotism.' I decided that as long as I felt confident and worked hard for it, instead of having it handed to me, no one could take that away from me."

3. Lynda Lopez

Jennifer Lopez's sister Lynda Lopez says it was a wild experience watching her sibling become known around the world. In the early 2000s, after Jennifer had opened a restaurant in LA, Lynda recalled the media attention being something she had never imagined could happen.

"I went to the opening of her restaurant in Pasadena…and I was walking in with my boyfriend. As we're walking into the restaurant…across the street there was barricades set up with all these people behind it. These people had painted pictures of Jen, hand painted pictures of Jen and they were holding up signs, and they were screaming. I was walking past it, and I don't know why it makes me laugh. I can't believe these are people that are here to see Jen, my goofball sister…who ran around in her underwear in our house when we were little," Lynda said on The Oprah Show.

4. Austin Swift

Taylor Swift's brother Austin Swift has been by her side every step of her rise to fame. Watching her go from performing at local events all the way to stadiums, Austin says he's been amazed by her work ethic and says it influenced who he wants to be in life.

"[I] was there when she was performing at karaoke contests and in the corners of parties with the same enthusiasm she now plays to stadiums full of her fans," Austin told WHO. "Having seen that example, how much goes in, how long it took… That's always going to be bedrock for who I am and who I want to be," he told People.

5. Bella Hadid

Bella Hadid admits that watching her older sister Gigi Hadid become a supermodel brought out some of her deep insecurities. In the media, people would often compare the sisters and Bella was made to feel like she wasn't as good as Gigi, leaving her with anxiety, depression, body-image struggles and eating issues.

"I was the uglier sister. I was the brunette. I wasn't as cool as Gigi, not as outgoing. That's really what people said about me. And unfortunately when you get told things so many times, you do just believe it," she told Vogue. "But over the years I became a good actress. I put on a very smiley face, or a very strong face. I always felt like I had something to prove."

6. Noah Cyrus

Noah Cyrus also says watching her sister become famous made her feel like she wasn't good enough. Due to her sister's growing fame, she didn't go to a traditional school and was subject to bullying online. When people approached her, they often didn't know her name and only referred to her as Miley's sister. Looking back, she says she often hid away in her room with the lights off, which served as her only safe space.

"I had a really hard time being a part of a public family, and I struggled a bit with that, because it wasn't exactly my first choice," she told Rolling Stone. "I had a hard time with people coming up to me and saying, 'Are you Miley Cyrus' little sister?' or 'Are you Hannah Montana's little sister?' I did not like that, and it stripped me of my own identity for a long time."

7. Kieran Culkin

When Kieran Culkin's brother Macaulay Culkin became one of the most famous child actors in the world in the early 90s, Kieran says he just felt bad for him. Even at a young age, watching Macaulay skyrocket to fame, he understood how difficult it could be as he noticed people following them around and eavesdropping on their conversations.

"Poor f--king guy," Kieran told Esquire. "He was little and having to try to accept that level of fame as reality. Even at that time, as a kid, I remember thinking, 'That sucks for him.'"

8. Gemma Styles

Harry Styles' older sister Gemma Styles watched on as her brother went from high school student to superstar practically overnight. As she accompanied him as his guardian during his early X Factor days, she got to witness as he quickly gained a legion of dedicated fans.

"It's a strange experience having your baby brother run off and become a pop star," she wrote in a piece for AnOther mag. "One thing Harry's ascent has taught me is that suddenly you're not seen as a normal person any more, but some famous 'thing' who simply came into being when a camera was first pointed at you. People scurry to gather tidbits of information about his life, whether they're readily shared or not, to try and understand where this creature with the hair and the silver boots came from."

9. Doniya Malik

Zayn Malik's sister Doniya Malik also got to witness her brother become famous overnight during his run on X Factor. While Doniya says it was a strange experience at first, she eventually got used to her brother being known all around the world.

"At the beginning when it first started out, I think I was 18, it was all kind of surreal and weird. As time goes on you get used to it [but] yeah it is overwhelming -- it's something that doesn't really hit you. I never thought my brother would be in the world's biggest boy-band … You've just got to go along with it," she told BBC's Asian Network.

10. Finneas

Finneas may be his sister Billie Eilish's frequent collaborator but he says that as he's watched her rise to fame, it's made him realize that he doesn't want to be as famous as her. He added that it's made him grateful that he's been able to live to some degree of anonymity.

"Billie gets to play these arenas and whatever, but her day-to-day life is more challenging than mine. My ability to walk down the street and go into a grocery store and sit at a coffee shop and whatever is uninhibited," Finneas said on the Song Stories podcast. "I think a lot of people want to be famous, but I have no desire to be any more famous than I currently am. It seems like a huge drag…I get to go to the party, but I don't get followed home by the paparazzi."

11. Franklin Jonas

Franklin Jonas is the youngest brother of Nick, Joe and Kevin Jonas — and while he was pretty young when his brothers rose to fame, he did not appreciate the attention that came his way as a result of their stardom. Looking back, Franklin says that although fans affectionately called him the "Bonus Jonas," he hated the nickname and felt that he was being stripped of his identity. On top of that, as he got older and his brothers got more famous, he was subject to hateful comments online.

"A lot of it was like, 'If you ever feel forgotten, remember this guy.' Or, 'Frankie Jonas is a talentless sack of s--t.' … It became a form of self-harm to look at these things … 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," Frankie told Bustle.

12. Toby Sebastian

Florence Pugh's brother Toby Sebastian has been by her side on her rise to fame. Since they both began their acting career around the same time, Toby says that her stardom has felt like it came gradually. So when Florence became an A-list celeb, it wasn't a big surprise.

"I'm so used to it, things have a gradual build so it's not news to me. Obviously with success in this industry comes fame and people recognise you and all that stuff," Toby told Metro.co.uk. "I don't live with it on a day-to-day basis but she rises to the task of everything that she does. I don't know a more professional person or I'm yet to meet one who is as professional across the board as she is."

13. Solange

As Beyonce's younger sister, Solange witnessed her sister become a superstar. Solange says she took great pride in seeing her sister become famous and took advantage of learning from a "master class" like Beyonce. As her sister rose to fame, she learned the importance of being involved in all aspects of a career, from lyrics to stage design to choreography.

"I think it's been an interesting thing to navigate, especially watching you do the same in all aspects of your work: Society labels that a control freak, an obsessive woman, or someone who has an inability to trust her team or to empower other people to do the work, which is completely untrue," she told Interview magazine.

She continued, "There's no way to succeed without having a team and all of the moving parts that help bring it into life. But I do have -- and I'm unafraid to say it -- a very distinctive, clear vision of how I want to present myself and my body and my voice and my perspective."